Child-to-parent violence from the perspective of jurisdiction over minors: psychosocial and clinical characteristics

Child-to-parent violence is an emerging family related problem with a growing interest in the legal sphere, a phenomenon that can be seen in the increasing number of court actions. The main aim of this study is to analyze the psychosocial and clinical characteristics of the accused minors of child-to-parent violence, their family’s profile and the judicial measures imposed, the last being an aspect that has hardly been studied. The sample consisted of 145 minors between 14 and 18 years of age who had been accused of child-to-parent violence between 2012 and 2017. The instruments used were the procedural management system Minerva, the case files of the minors and the experimental version of the “Personality assessment inventory-adolescent” (PAI-A). The results show that the minors do not present significant psychopathological symptoms, but they do show evidence of difficulties in the family, personal and social context, as well as maladjustments in the marital relationship of the parents. The modality of educational group living as a judicial measure imposed upon these young people is worth noting.