Italian Validation of The Child-to-Parent Violence Questionnaire: Frequency and Reasons for Violence Among Young Adults

Abstract Child-to-parent violence (CPV) is one of the most frequent but least researched types of family violence. Although CPV has traditionally been limited to the adolescent period, the increasingly later age of emancipation of children in Western countries justifies the need to study CPV in the young population, especially in countries where there are still no studies on this type of violence, such as Italy. Purpose To analyze the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Child-to-Parent Violence Questionnaire (CPV-Q) and to examine the frequency and reasons for CPV in a sample of young people from central (75.6%), southern (14.3%), and northern (10%) Italy. Methods A total of 1,055 young adults (58.7% girls) who continue to live with their parents, aged between 18 to 25 years participated. Results The original structure of the CPV-Q, its reliability, and validity were confirmed. A high frequency of CPV is found, being more frequent physical violence from sons to fathers and psychological and control-domain behaviors from daughters to both parents. More mothers than fathers experienced CPV, with the most frequent reasons for violence against mothers being related to their children’s compliance with norms and demands and to their temperament, while getting more money was a more frequent reason for violence toward fathers. In general, while sons show more instrumental reasons for CPV, daughters show more reactive reasons. Conclusions CPV is present among Italian young adults and high proportions, so urgent resources are needed to research this phenomenon in Italy. The CPV-Q can be used to effectively identify and assess CPV in this population, although further studies are needed.