Parental perceptions of increased child-to- parent violence of Spanish adolescents during COVID-19 lockdown

Background: Internationally, there was a warning of the risk of increased domestic violence during lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including child-to-parent violence. The objective of our study was to assess the prevalence of different violent behaviors from children to parents during pre-lockdown, lockdown and immediately after, between March 14 and June 20, 2020, and to assess differences in behaviors between pre-lockdown and lockdown and between pre-lockdown and post-lockdown.

[Parental perceptions of increased child-to-parent violence of Spanish adolescents during covid-19 lockdown.]

OBJECTIVE: Internationally, there was a warning of the risk of increased domestic violence during lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including child-to-parent violence. The objective of our study was to assess the prevalence of different violent behaviors from children to parents during pre-lockdown, lockdown and immediately after, between March 14 and June 20, 2020, and to assess differences in behaviors between pre-lockdown and lockdown and between pre-lockdown and post-lockdown. METHODS: The researchers developed a survey with closed questions about different violent behaviors of the children (poor responses, insults and physical aggression). This was distributed with the CAWI methodology during the months of August and September 2020 to a sample of Spanish parents stratified by autonomous communities. 1,500 families with 1,927 adolescents aged 12 to 18 years participated. The frequency of responses obtained between the pre-lockdown and lockdown and between pre-lockdown and post-lockdown was compared through the Mac Nemar test for comparison of related samples. RESULTS: The prevalences of poor responses, insults and aggressions in a pre-lockdown setting were 30.1%, 3.8% and 0.6%, respectively. Poor responses and insults increased significantly between pre-lockdown and lockdown (p<0.001) and between pre-lockdown and post-lockdown (p<0.001) in all autonomous communities, age groups, genders, occupation type of the adolescent and type of household. No statistically significant differences were found in physical aggression for the periods evaluated. Single-parent families, adolescents residing in subsidized housing and those without an occupation or education ("NEET") exhibited more violent behavior in the three periods. CONCLUSIONS: Lockdown led to an increase in nonphysical violent behaviors, which were maintained to the end, warning of the potentially persistent risks of lockdown in this age group, especially in vulnerable families.