Chaos, Conflict, and Unpredictability in the Home: A Network Analysis with Child-to-Parent Violence

Child-to-parent violence (CPV) is a prevalent community issue which is poorly understood. Early CPV behaviours are likely to be associated with broader familial and household instability and dysfunction, however, these relationships have not been explored. Thus, the current study aimed to explore the associations between early life instability, home chaos and conflict, mental health, and CPV in childhood. A sample of 431 parents (reporting on children aged 5–12 years) completed an online survey measuring a range of parent, child, and household factors. A network analysis was conducted. Caregiving helplessness was most central to the network (i.e., it shared the most unique associations with other variables in the analysis). Only child cognitive functioning and caregiving helplessness shared direct partial correlations with CPV. Cross-sectional partial correlations indicated several indirect relationships with CPV via caregiving helplessness, including home chaos and parent mood disorder diagnosis. Parent ADHD was related to more home chaos and poorer child cognitive functioning, as well as early life unpredictability. Early life unpredictability was strongly related to parent experience of IPV, which shared a cross-sectional indirect association with CPV via caregiving helplessness. These findings highlight the complex familial and household context surrounding CPV, pointing to a range of indirect and interactional effects which could be probed in future research. In particular, research and intervention could focus on caregiving helplessness in the context of high home chaos.