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Emergent issues in
families experiencing
adolescent to parent abuse
a
Nancy J. Eckstein
a
Associate Professor of communication, Bethel
University
Version of record first published: 06 Jun 2009.

To cite this article: Nancy J. Eckstein (2004): Emergent issues in families

experiencing adolescent to parent abuse, Western Journal of Communication, 68:4,
365-388

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 Western Journal of Communication, 68(4) (Fall 2004), 365-388

Emergent Issues in Families

Experiencing Adolescent-to-Parent
Abuse
Nancy J. Eckstein
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Bethel University

Episodes wherein adolescents verbally, physically, or emotionally abuse their parents

require scholars to consider the relational dynamics in these family systems. The
purpose of this study was to explore adolescent-to-parent abuse through the victims'
reports, identifying recurring issues to increase understanding of this form of domestic
abuse. Data were drawn from in-depth, face-to-face interviews with 20 parents whose
adolescents had verbally, physically, and emotionally abused them. A qualitative/inter-
pretive method was used to analyze these data. The results identified the following
issues: (a) the progression and escalation of abuse episodes; (b) abused parents' percep-
tion of their parental role within the family; and (c) abused parents' perception of their
parental role outside the family. These findings reflect how adolescent-to-parent abuse
impacts family relationships.

Helen lived in fear of her teenage son. Helen's son threatened her, saying that if he
was big, he would hurt her. He pushed her, pinned her against a wall and slammed
her elbows in the door.. .. He also verbally abused her. When Helen and her son
argued, he would threaten to tell people at school that she abused him. As a parent,
she felt isolated. "The public tends to think 'What's wrong with those parents who
can't control their children?" "I feel like I failed raising this child," Helen said. "On
the other hand, I did the best I could." (Schuett, 1999, p. 7B)

T HIS EXCERPT PROVIDES a brief glimpse into a phenomenon many

individuals do not know exists—adolescent-to-parent abuse. The
statistics reporting incidents of adolescent-to-parent abuse refer spe-
cifically to physical assaults on parents by their adolescent children.
The National Family Violence Survey reported that, in the U.S., 18
percent of parents were victims of physical abuse at least once in a one
year time period; 2 V2 million parents were struck by their adolescents;
and 900,000 of these parents have experienced severe physically abu-
sive episodes (Straus, Gelles, & Steinmetz, 1980). Since these findings

Author's note: Nancy J. Eckstein (PhD., University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 2002) is an

Associate Professor of communication at Bethel University. I thank all of the parents
who generously shared their family experiences with me. This manuscript is based on
the author's dissertation directed by Dawn O. Braithwaite.
 366 Adolescent-to-Parent Abuse

were reported, little research explored other dimensions of adolescent-

to-parent abuse. Because most researchers exploring domestic abuse
agree that a definition of abuse needs to include the verbal and emo-
tional aspects to accurately describe the type of abusive interactions
occurring within families (Cahn & Lloyd, 1996; Cornell & Gelles, 1981;
Gelles & Straus, 1988; Infante, Sabourin, Rudd, & Shannon, 1990;
Pagelow, 1984; Price, 1996), it is especially difficult to venture a guess
about the extensiveness of adolescent-to-parent abuse episodes. Based
on these arguments, the assertion can be made that some parents who
experience verbal, physical, and emotional abuse by their adolescents
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are not reporting these incidences (Blum, 1997; Gest & Pope, 1996;
Harbin & Madden, 1979; Price, 1996; Sheehan, 1997).
The few psychology and sociology researchers who have explored
adolescent-to-parent abuse have focused on measuring the relation-
ship between personality factors of the parent and adolescent, possible
biological causes, and the possible socio-economic impact on relation-
ships (Harbin & Madden, 1979; Heide, 1995; Hemphill, 1996; Price,
1996; VanOostrum & Horvath, 1997). The lack of a communicative
approach to the phenomenon of adolescent-to-parent abuse is problem-
atic because communication factors are essential when differentiating
between abusive and non-abusive relationships (Lloyd & Emery,
1994). Communicative interactions are the key to maintaining or ter-
minating social bonds (Baxter, 1985), and in adolescent-to-parent
abuse the messages sent and the meanings perceived are part of the
catalyst by which interpersonal communication contributes to and
creates family dynamics and climates. Therefore, adolescent-to-parent
abuse cannot be isolated from the context of interpersonal communi-
cation and the role it plays in family relationships. Exploring adoles-
cent-to-parent abuse from the communication perspective allows the
framing of these messages in the context they occur.
Additionally, because family violence can be interpreted as a form of
communication (Cahn, 1996), exploring adolescent-to-parent abuse
communicatively directs evaluation to how messages impact the family
relationships. In families where adolescent-to-parent abuse occurs,
verbal intimidation and threatening messages may become common
interaction patterns (Price, 1996). Therefore, researching adolescent-
to-parent abuse episodes from a communicative perspective allows the
identification of interpretations of these abusive messages and their
impact on family members. This provides a platform from which re-
searchers and family counselors can begin to justify descriptive and
prescriptive solutions to this problem, and thus, begin to repair these
adolescent-parent relationships. Accordingly, the purpose of this study
was to explore adolescent-to-parent abuse episodes through the vic-
tims' reports and to identify interpretations of the meanings abused
parents assign to verbal, physical, and emotional abuse episodes.
 Fall 2004 367
Review of Literature
Defining Abuse
Denning abuse is a complex procedure because many of the terms
are used interchangeably across disciplines (e.g., violence, aggression,
abuse), and they often share many commonalities. Sheehan (1997)
argued that abuse could be "an aggressive imposition of will by a
variety of means: physical, emotional, psychological" (p. 83). Abuse is
also argued to be an "ongoing, repetitive pattern—psychological, emo-
tional, or behavioral—of pain infliction" (Spitzberg, 1997, p. 177). For
this study, the term abuse is conceptualized to include verbal, physical,
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and emotional means of inflicting hurt upon another that violates

socially accepted standards.
Verbal abuse. Verbal abuse refers to a verbal attack on another
individual (Gelles, 1987; Kinney, 1994; Vissing & Bailey, 1996), and
may be a predictor of physical violence (Infante & Rancer, 1995;
Infante et al., 1990; Price, 1996). Adolescent-to-parent verbal abuse
is a destructive form of communication that focuses an implicit
attack on the self-concept of the parent instead of the issue under
discussion; it is the verbal maltreatment of the parent and involves
the use of verbally aggressive behaviors (Infante, 1995; Infante et
al., 1990; Kinney, 1994). Such aggressive behaviors includes
accusations, rejections, refusals to talk, disconfirmation, attacks on
character, competence, background, physical appearance, as well as
maledictions, teasing, swearing, ridicule, and nonverbal emblems
(Infante, 1995; Infante et al., 1990; Semic & Canary, 1997).
Physical abuse. Physical abuse includes acts that are intentional
or perceived as intentional and that result in any physical harm
against a person (Straus & Gelles, 1990). Examples of adolescent-to-
parent physical abuse include hitting, kicking, shoving, pushing,
slapping, biting of a family member, hitting with an object, beating
up, or attempting to shoot, stab, or strangle another family member.
Emotional abuse. It is important to state that a difference exists
between an emotional abuse episode and the emotional distress that
occurs as a result of abuse (Marshall, 1994; Price, 1996). Although
emotional distress is a result of physical abuse, "psychological
violence more often appears to take the form of distorted
communication patterns that blame, confuse, criticize, bind, or
otherwise constrain another person" (Spitzberg, 1997, p. 179).
Specific communicative behaviors, strategies, and situations
constitute the concept of an emotionally abusive episode (Marshall,
1994; Price, 1996; Spitzberg, 1997). Emotionally abusive tactics
undermine parents' personal or interpersonal competence, affects
their ability to function in the typical parent role, compromises self-
esteem, and instills the belief of negative personality characteristics
resulting in emotional distress (Price, 1996).
 368 Adolescent-to-Parent Abuse
Emotionally abusive behaviors specific to adolescent-parent
interactions include anger or hostility over little or unpredictable
things, emotional control (e.g., blaming parent for being upset), bind
or dilemma (e.g., putting parent in a no-win situation),
disconfirmation, withdrawal (e.g., becoming cold or indifferent),
threats of impending physical assault, suicide, or self destructive
acts (e.g., quitting school, running away, drug use, indiscriminate
sex), reporting parents to child protection services for any physical
restraint or aggression used in response to abusive behavior, and
provocation by vulgarity and personal attack (Dodge, Bates, &
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Pettit, 1990; Price, 1996; Snyder, Schrepferman, & St. Peter, 1997;
Spitzberg, 1997).

Characteristics of Adolescent-to-Parent Abuse

Two of the primary difficulties in studying adolescent-to-parent
abuse are that the research available is quite dated and that which is
available, focuses primarily on physical abuse. However, sociologists
have presented common characteristics present in families experienc-
ing parent abuse.
First, parents often avoid talking about abusive episodes because
they were either blamed or blamed themselves for their own victim-
ization (Cornell & Gelles, 1981; Schuett, 1999). Parents who share
frequently minimize the seriousness of the behavior, express an inabil-
ity to punish the abusive behavior, and often refuse to ask for outside
help for themselves or their child. These types of responses may cause
adolescents to perceive that abusive behavior toward their parents is
acceptable, and, as a result, parents' sense of helplessness may become
normative (Gehring, Wentzel, Feldman, & Munson, 1990; Price, 1996;
Sheehan, 1997; VanOostrum & Horvath, 1997). Parents' lack of com-
munication about their adolescent-to-parent abuse experience creates
difficulty for those attempting to find solutions to this problem.
Second, the father's occupational level and the family income level
are characteristics of adolescent-to-parent abuse. Families where fa-
thers were white-collar workers experience the greatest severity of
abuse by adolescents; blue-collar workers experience moderate abuse;
and farmers report no abuse perpetuated against them by their ado-
lescents (Cornell & Gelles, 1981). The most frequent and severe ado-
lescent-to-parent abuse occurs in middle-income families, moderate
abuse occurs in lowest income families, and the lowest rate of abuse
toward parents occurs in highest income families (Cornell & Gelles,
1981). Whereas family stressors identified in the abuse literature do
not seem to play a role in motivating adolescents to be violent toward
their parents, adolescents suspended from school are more likely to
perpetuate abuse toward parents than are their counterparts in school
(Cornell & Gelles, 1981; Harbin & Madden, 1979).
 Fall 2004 369
Third, the physical size difference that might exist between the teen
and the parent plays an important role. If an adolescent is stronger
and larger than the parent, abuse is more likely to be initiated toward
the parent (Cornell & Gelles, 1981; Harbin & Madden, 1979; Heide,
1995). These researchers found that more sons than daughters insti-
gate incidents of adolescent-to-parent abuse; females and small boys
often rely on speed and weapons to abuse parents. Mothers are more
likely than fathers to be struck, and abuse perpetuated against fathers
is usually the act of sons and more severe (Cornell & Gelles, 1981;
Harbin & Madden, 1979). Interestingly, severe child abuse rarely plays
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a role in adolescents' abuse of parents, and adolescents that abuse

parents often abuse siblings as well (Harbin & Madden, 1979; Heide,
1995).
Fourth, if parent abuse occurs when adolescents were between the
ages of ten and eleven, rarely does the sex of the adolescent come into
play; at this age, boys do not physically abuse parents more than do
girls (Harbin & Madden, 1979). With each year after age 11, sons show
a higher incidence of physically abusing parents. The severity of pa-
rental abuse by sons increases incrementally between ten and 17 years
of age. Parent abuse by daughters increases between the ages of ten
and 13, after which the incidents of parents' physical abuse by daugh-
ters fall (Cornell & Gelles, 1981; Harbin & Madden, 1979).
Family Systems Theory
Systems theory is widely used in the study of family interaction
because of its descriptive and holistic approach (Gano-Phillips & Fin-
cham, 1995). When applying this approach, researchers have argued
that the reciprocal flow of communication between family members,
particularly between parent and child, impacts the family system
(Lytton, 1979; Patterson, 1979). More specifically, individuals respond
to and are affected by the outcomes and processes of interactions
within the family; the family system becomes unique when it takes on
the various characteristics of its parts (Gano-Phillips & Fincham,
1995). Therefore, how family members respond to the conflict that
inevitably occurs contributes to the creation of a distressed or non-
distressed family (Comstock & Buller, 1991; Prinz, Foster, Kent, &
O'Leary, 1979; Prinze, Rosenblum, & O'Leary, 1978). The "increases in
the probability of extended and/or high-amplitude interchanges are a
prelude to development of a child who will eventually be labeled as
aggressive or a parent labeled as abusive" (Patterson, 1979, p. 125).
Especially in cases of aggression (aversive behavior dispensed contin-
gent upon the behaviors of another person), coercion controls the
interpersonal interchanges and eventually members may get trapped
into repeated uses of the behavior (Patterson, 1979).
Using the family systems approach to study the progression and
escalation of conflict in families represents an interactive approach.
 370 Adolescent-to-Parent Abuse
The frequency of occurrence and the intensity levels of conflict behav-
iors between parent and adolescent appear to progress over a period of
time in response to hormonal changes, physical changes, and the
timing of puberty (Peterson, 1988; Steinberg, 1987, 1988; Steinberg &
Hill, 1978). As a result of these changes, when adolescents do engage
in conflict with their parents they choose conflict strategies based on
their perception of the conflict situation and the history of their par-
ents' behavior and responses (Montemayor, 1983; Peterson, 1988).
Patterson (1979) argued that parents and children acquire a varied
repertoire of aggressive behaviors that develop and are repeated over
time. The progression of a conflict episode into an adolescent-to-parent
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abuse episode may be a result of the reciprocation of messages that has

created a pre-existing climate and expectation for the conflict episode.
If this assumption is true, then it is important to explore the progres-
sion and the escalation of intensity of these types of abuse episodes.
RQ 1: How do adolescent-to-parent abuse episodes progress and escalate over time?

In addition, the structure of family relationships are altered as

parents respond to adolescents' attempts for individuation. As the
adolescent continues to seek more autonomy and independence, the
communication style of the adolescent may change eliciting a different
response from the parent in addition to redefining family roles (Robin
& Foster, 1989). Maintaining established family roles and structure
requires adaptation by all members of the family system (Patterson,
1979; Steinberg & Hill, 1978). However, this may prove difficult in
families experiencing adolescent-to-parent abuse as parents take on
characteristics of an abuse victim (e.g., powerless, depressed, helpless)
(Harbin & Madden, 1979; Price, 1996). Continued abusive behavior
over time impacts how abused parents implement the parental role as
the structure of the family system is drastically altered from influences
both inside and outside the family (Robin & Foster, 1989). Therefore, it
becomes important to assess the impact adolescent-to-parent abuse
has on parents' perception of their family role.
RQ 2: How does adolescent-to-parent abuse affect parents' perception of their
parenting role within the family?

RQ 3: How does adolescent-to-parent abuse affect parents' perception of their

parenting role outside the family?

Method
Participants
Reports of parents abused by their adolescents were surprisingly
easy to generate; it seemed many individuals knew of a case where an
adolescent was verbally, physically, or emotionally abusing their par-
ents. However, locating abused parents who were willing to talk about
 Fall 2004 371
their abuse proved difficult, possibly due to their self-imposed social
isolation, the veil of denial, and the fear of being judged a poor parent.
Participants were 20 parents who had experienced verbal, physical,
and emotional abuse from an adolescent child (10-17 years of age) who
was still living in the home. To locate the sample, a number of different
measures was taken. Through a parent network developed while work-
ing as a youth pastor, I was directed to parents who were having
"severe" trouble with an adolescent. The abused parents were con-
tacted and screened via phone to determine if they met the criteria: (a)
had been verbally, physically, and emotionally abused by an adolescent
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child; (b) were the primary caregivers of this child during the time of
abuse; and (c) the adolescent lived in the home during the period of
abuse. However, the discussion of this project within the parent net-
work served as a catalyst and other individuals were referred or came
forward to participate in the study. Through this purposive snowball
sampling method, 10 additional participants were located. The final
seven participants were located through a social worker teaching court
ordered parenting classes. I contacted the social worker and explained
the study and participant criteria. She then contacted parents in her
case file and asked if they would be willing to participate in the study.
Those who agreed gave her the necessary contact information and were
informed that a researcher would be contacting them to set up a time
for the interview.
Participants were European American (seven men and 13 women)
who ranged in age from 35 to 55, with a mean age of 42 years. These
families averaged 3.4 children. Nine of the participants were in first
marriages and had been married an average of 25 years. Nine of the
participants were in second marriages with a mean of nine years. Two
of the participants were divorced at the time of the interview. Nineteen
of the 20 families had only one child who was abusive. Thirteen of the
participants had been abused by their biological children, five by their
stepchildren, and two by their adopted children. All of the participants
had participated in various family counseling programs.
Data Collection and Analysis
The interview consisted of demographic, semi-structured open-
ended, retrospective, and hypothetical questions (Holstein & Gubrium,
1995; Maxwell, 1996; McCracken, 1988). Family violence researchers
have successfully used the interview for gathering data (Lloyd, 1990;
Olson, 2002), and adolescent-to-parent abuse lends itself well to this
form of naturalistic inquiry. The interview questions asked partici-
pants to describe, from start to finish, one experience of each type of
abuse episode (verbal, physical, emotional), the impact it was having
on members of the family, perceptions of their own parenting skills,
and what they believed others thought of them as parents. Partici-
pants were also free to raise other issues at varying times in the
 372 Adolescent-to-Parent Abuse

interview process. Before beginning the interview, the three different

types of abuse were clearly denned for the participants. For example,
when asking participants to describe a verbally abusive episode the
following excerpt was read:
By "verbal abuse" I mean times when your adolescent used words to hurt you.
Examples of verbal abuse include name-calling, insults, accusations, character
attacks, swearing at you, or ridicule. From my descriptions, do you understand what
verbal abuse is? Do you have any questions?

A definition and example of each type of abuse was explained to

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participants before the interview and reviewed again during the inter-
view to insure understanding. The use of secondary and probing ques-
tions helped the participants provide a full description of each type of
abuse episode. I interviewed all 20 parents who agreed to participate
even though theoretical saturation occurred early (Leininger, 1994).
Interviews were audio recorded and lasted approximately 1-1.5
hours. A professional was hired to transcribe the interviews, which
yielded 753 pages of 1.5 spaced data. Rigorous qualitative research
evaluates emergent categories against other data collected for the
project as well as from other studies done on the issue, often alternat-
ing between analytic induction and deduction (Creswell, 1998; Taylor
& Trujillo, 2001). Based on this, data analysis involved using Glaser
and Strauss' constant comparative method (Lindlof, 1995; Strauss &
Corbin, 1990). The reports of the participants were compared for re-
curring issues. For data coding purposes, analytic memos were written
to identify and define issues; subcategories were developed until all
these data were classified. The findings that evolved from these data
were consistent with issues that emerged in a previous pilot study as
well as other studies by adolescent-to-parent abuse researchers.
Data were analyzed in four phases. First, the transcripts were read
while listening to the interview tapes to verify the accuracy of tran-
scription, and to develop an overall picture of the participants' percep-
tions. Second, I identified and categorized the issues that emerged
from participants' reports. A deductive data analysis is possible when
the researcher "has a good bank of applicable, well-delineated con-
cepts" (Huberman & Miles, 1995, p. 185). Thus, the issues that
emerged were used further to analyze these data. Data that did not
clearly fit into the existing categories were inductively analyzed to
produce additional categories (Creswell, 1998; Miles & Huberman,
1994).
Third, guided by the research question, data were analyzed to check
the presence or absence of prevalent issues in an adolescent-to-parent
abuse family. To check the analysis, transcripts were read again,
looking for any disconfirmation of the analysis and to locate exemplars
for this research report (Miles & Huberman, 1994; notations from
 Fall 2004 373
interview transcripts are cited by participant and page number in the
transcript. 9:2 means participant 9, page 2 of transcript).
Finally, a member check was performed (Creswell, 1998) by present-
ing the conclusions to eight of the participants in written form. These
participants confirmed the interpretation and credibility of the analy-
sis and stressed the consistency of these issues, discussing how similar
the excerpts were to their own experiences.

Results
As these data were being analyzed, relevant insights and implica-
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tions emerged that were representative of families experiencing ado-

lescent-to-parent abuse. These included (a) the progression and esca-
lation of abuse episodes, (b) parents' perceptions of their role within
the family, and (c) parents' perceptions of their role outside the family.
The presentation of these findings provides the opportunity to high-
light the stories of the victims as well as the complexity of families
experiencing adolescent-to-parent abuse.

Progression and Escalation of Abuse Episodes

The first research question focused on understanding parents' rec-
ognition of the progression, escalation, and intensity of the different
types of abuse. Abused parents were easily able to identify, differen-
tiate, and provide a history of the occurrence of different episodes of
verbal, physical, and emotional abuse. Instances where conflict epi-
sodes escalated past verbal abuse, parents often experienced either
verbal and physical or verbal and emotional abuse behaviors in tan-
dem. Interestingly, none of these parents reported all three types of
abusive behaviors in one abusive episode. "You know, it would always
escalate from verbal to physical - or verbal to emotional. But I don't
ever recall have [ing] it go physical and emotional at the same time"
(1:54). Again, reiterating the difference between an emotionally abu-
sive episode and emotional distress as a result of verbal, physical, or
emotional abusive strategies is important to understanding the types
of abuse. Although physical abuse did not seem to be a prerequisite for
an emotionally abusive episode, emotional distress was prevalent in all
types of abuse.
Often, the first time these parents experienced an abusive episode it
took the form of verbal abuse, and then progressed over time to become
physical or emotional. A first incident might have involved a 13 year
old telling his or her parents to shut up. This type of interaction may
have continued for a period of a month or so, then progressed in
intensity, to the adolescent calling the parent stupid or an old bag.
Over a longer period of time the interchange in these communication
episodes might exemplify the following progression: shut up—you're
stupid—old bag—bitch—bastard—whore—fucking whore.
 374 Adolescent-to-Parent Abuse

The same type of escalation in intensity is true of other types of

abuse episodes. It appeared that once verbal abuse no longer had the
effect the adolescent desired, some moved into physical abuse. Over
time, the intensity of the physical abuse increased and followed the
same type of pattern as verbal abuse, for instance: get in parent's
space—throw something—break something—push or shove parent—
grab parent—slam parent against wall, floor, window—wrestle with
parent—punch parent in arm—punch parent in head or face.
Emotional abuse also had this example of escalation: using parents'
emotional weakness to hurt them—threatening to run away—threat-
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ening to kill parent—threatening to kill self—calling "911" and accus-

ing of abuse—having parent arrested.
As seen in these examples, parents' reported histories of adolescent-
to-parent abuse occurred, over a period of time, in a clear and progres-
sive pattern that begins with verbal abuse and moves to physical or
emotional abuse. These adolescents verbally abused their parents on a
number of occasions and when parents were unable to stop it, eventu-
ally moved to physical or emotional abuse. Parents believed that when
the verbal abuse no longer had the impact desired, these adolescents
then used a more "serious" type of abuse.
Although it is dangerous to assign a hierarchical order of serious-
ness to the different types of abuse, this was a prevalent observation
offered by parents who were abused. This order is important for re-
searchers to acknowledge so practical suggestions in preventing the
escalation of adolescent-to-parent abuse can emerge. These data
clearly revealed that verbal abuse preceded both physical and emo-
tional abuse and parents were willing to assign a degree of severity to
the harm each type of abuse inflicted on them and their families. There
was 100% agreement by these parents on which abuse episodes were
considered least and most abusive.
Verbal abuse. The least hurtful type of abuse was verbal abuse,
which for these parents became a common form of interaction with
their abusive children. For example:
And I was a fuckin' bitch. You know, I was a whore and just on and on. And it got to
the point where that's how he continually addressed m e . . . . And a lot of times I
didn't know when it was coming or where it was coming from. It just seemed to
happen.. . . And it got be where actually I guess that was just the [way] he always
just talked. So I assumed that that [sic] was just the way he addressed me. I knew it
was not normal for him to address me this way, because I had two other children who
did not address me this way. In fact, they wouldn't even dream of addressing me this
way. (9:2)
Although these parents were bothered by their abusive adolescents'
verbal abuse, their inability to prevent it from occurring allowed the
verbal abuse to continue and escalate. Even if these abused parents did
not become desensitized to the verbal abuse, they did come to expect it
as a normative communicative behavior in conflict situations. As abu-
 Fall 2004 375
sive adolescents progressed to using physical or emotional abuse, the
verbal abuse became of less importance to parents except to signify
that, if not handled correctly, the conflict often progressed to either a
physical or emotional abuse episode.
Physical abuse. These parents reported physical abuse as the
second most hurtful type of abuse, and seemed to accept it as a way
their adolescents engaged in conflict with them. Although this
troubled these parents, it did not surprise them. Oddly, parents had
little fear of the physical abuse inflicted upon them. For example,
one mother said, ". . . even though I wasn't afraid of him, and it
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seems weird for me to say that, that I wasn't afraid of him, it would
not have surprised me if he had killed me or seriously hurt me"
(9:27). Recurring types of statements from all the participants were
that though physical abuse could "hurt" them, physical abuse was
not the most hurtful.
Emotional abuse. Participants believed that emotional abuse was
the most damaging and hurtful type of abusive episode; they
continued to deal with the emotional distress of emotional abuse
long after the abusive episode had passed. "By far the most painful
is emotional, and physical [abuse] is obviously, at the moment very
difficult as is verbal. But. . . one forgets the words, one forgets the
event, but one never forgets the pain, and that's emotional" (5:29).
Another participant made this comparison between physical and
emotional abuse, "The physical could hurt you more, but the
emotional is going to last the longest. You can get over a bruise"
(2:34).
In fact, previous physical abuse played a role in giving credence to
threats used in emotional abuse. If physical abuse had taken place
in the past, parents took the emotionally abusive statements more
seriously. A mother described this relationship between physical and
emotional abuse:
Once he started physically abusing us, [then] when he would make threats to kill us
and things like that, it carried with it a whole new weight. .. . From that point on I
knew when he made threats that he did have the potential to carry them out and
that he had already crossed the line from yelling at me and swearing at me to hitting
me. Therefore, what's to prevent him from killing me? And so the threats that he was
using in the emotional abuse all of a sudden became real to me. (9:27)

This same mother explained how her son's emotional abuse controlled
her thoughts and made her feel helpless:
Emotional abuse, he knew how to control me through words.. .. He'd say something
and leave . . . and he'd say something really mean before he'd leave and then go off on
a little rampage. "I'm going out right now and when I come home and you'll be
sleeping, I'm going to slit your fuckin' throat," you know. Or, "I'm going to put a gun
to your head," and things such as that. And I would lay in bed at night, and I wasn't
afraid but I was—I would just cry and I would sob, you know. I fully .. . expected that
in the morning I would wake up dead. And it wasn't that it bothered me that I would
 376 Adolescent-to-Parent Abuse
wake up dead, but it bothered me that he would do that to me. That it would be my
son who would do that to me. And it would bother me because of what it would cost
him in his life. (9:34)

Abused parents clearly differentiated and ranked these types of

abuse in terms of severity the same, with verbal being the least
harmful, to physical, to emotional being the most harmful. Addition-
ally, participants perceived that how they responded to each episode of
abuse served to reinforce that the abuse was effective. For example, if
a parent cried during verbal abuse, then that became a successful way
for the teen to hurt the parent. If the parent left the house, or told the
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adolescent to leave the house in an attempt to prevent the conflict

escalating from verbal to physical or emotional abuse, then that be-
came a method for the adolescent to get his or her own way. Parents
were eventually unable to control any of the abuse episodes if the
escalation progressed.

Perceptions of the Parenting Role Within the Family

Parents abused by their adolescents often found themselves placed
in a new type of parental role—one that included a loss of power.
Parents' responses to abuse involved (a) attempts to eliminate chal-
lenges, (b) gradual ineffectiveness in disciplinary measures, and (c)
acceptance of abuse as normative behavior. All of these responses
contributed to parents' perceptions of their role within the family.
Parents' attempts to eliminate challenges. A finding that evolved
from these data was that parents attempted to eliminate
communicative behaviors with their adolescents that might be
interpreted as a challenge. When parents first began experiencing
verbal abuse, many believed the best approach was to challenge the
adolescent regarding the use of language and lack of respect.
However, as verbal abuse episodes continued to escalate, eventually
becoming physical and emotional, parents changed their
communication styles so the adolescent did not feel challenged or
threatened during the conflict. When a son first started swearing at
his parents, a father responded:
I would walk towards him and tell him that he should quit swearing and stuff, you
know, like that. And then he wouldn't back down. He'd stand his ground and get in
my face and just keep swearing. I would have walked towards him to challenge
h i m , . . . [but] rather than back down like most people would, [he] would actually
come towards me and get within a few inches of my face. . . . If I remained calm, he
tended to, you know, just get some swearing off his chest, kick a few things, maybe
throw something and ten minutes later he'd be fine. . . . Once he started swearing
then I initially yelled back at him. As time went on, I guess I did get calmer and
calmer. (1:8,9)

All of these participants revealed that their adolescents "got into

their faces," meaning the child swore and yelled standing within two to
twelve inches of their parents' faces. Initially, most parents did not
 Fall 2004 377
disengage from the conflict, thinking it undermined their authority as
parents. However, many parents' perceived adolescents viewed this
"not backing down" as a challenge and the conflict escalated, often
becoming emotional or physical in nature. Over time, most of these
parents became more concerned with preventing the escalation of the
conflict episodes rather than maintaining their parental authority.
Gradual ineffectiveness of ability to discipline. These data also
revealed that most of these abused parents reached a point when
they felt unable to implement discipline or control their adolescents'
behavior. Factors that seemed to affect this included the (a) age of
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the adolescent, (b) comparative size of the adolescent to the parent,

and (c) parents' inability to enforce consequences.
First, most adolescents in this study began verbally abusing their
parents between the ages of 11 and 13. If the parents were unable to
prevent the verbal abuse from continuing, these adolescents often
moved to physical or emotional abuse between the ages of 13 to 16
years old. Initially, parents went to great lengths to try and stop
their adolescents from using verbal abuse by grounding them or
taking away privileges. However, this became ineffective, as parents
were unable to keep their teens from leaving the house, sneaking
out windows, or using phones. A father stated:
I wanted to . . . just yell at him or try to ground him or take something away that he
wanted to do. It was effective if he wanted it to be. But if he didn't want it to work, it
wouldn't work. So it was kind of [dependent] on what he had in mind at the time.
(12:3,4).

As abusive adolescents grew older, they began to recognize that par-

ents could no longer control their behavior. At this point, parents
reported these adolescents would come and go as they pleased.
Second, comparative size played a role in how effectively parents
believed they could enforce discipline. As these adolescents grew older,
they became more comparable to, or often larger than parents in
physical size. Parents felt less able to control the physical actions of
abusive adolescents who were the same size or larger than them. Once
physical abuse entered into the conflict episodes, parents had even less
control as these teens physically intimidated, or pushed and shoved
their parents out of the way if they tried to prevent the adolescent from
leaving. When the conflict episode reached the point at which physical
or emotional abuse became present, adolescents often communicated
nonverbally by using physically abusive responses as proof of their
superior physical power and also as 1a justification for leaving the home
and doing what they wanted to do.

1
Although mothers were more likely to be abused, one woman who was trained in law
enforcement related the following: "[I]t was wet and it was raining and stuff and she goes
 378 Adolescent-to-Parent Abuse
Third, parents' felt an inability to enforce consequences. Many of the
parents reported they attempted extreme measures when disciplining
and enforcing the consequences of disobedience. Some measures in-
cluded selling the adolescent's vehicle, disconnecting phones, getting
rid of computers, staying up all night, and even setting "traps" so they
would hear if their adolescent tried to sneak out. They found enforce-
ment of these measures virtually impossible. Comments such as "Kids
sneak out anyway," or "They just leave anyway," were common. One
father stated he and his son had a conflict episode that resulted in the
father's refusal to allow the son to attend a party:
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When it was all said and done, that night, [adolescent] snuck out of the house and
went to the party anyway.... It was more or less, "Fuck you, whatever" and then,
like I said there would be times where we'd say, "No, you're not going." And at two
o'clock in the morning he'd be going [sneaking] out. So, he'd be—in his mind he'd say,
"Screw you, I'm going anyway." (8:2,15)
Although all of these parents attempted to provide guidelines and
enforce discipline, most abusive adolescents refused to follow family
rules or recognize parental authority rendering parental guidelines
ineffective. For some of these parents, the physical and emotional
abuse became too costly to other family members or themselves and
gave up trying to control the behavior of their abusive adolescent.
Abuse as normative behavior. Additionally, abusive episodes
became a normative and denning characteristic of conflict
interactions within these families. For abused parents, engaging in a
conflict with an abusive adolescent often meant experiencing verbal,
physical, and emotional abuse episodes. In fact, outside attempts to
change this family norm, such as counseling or law enforcement,
proved ineffective. Participants described this by saying, "There's
been so many that it's kind of an accumulation of your whole life,
you know .. ." (13:1), or "I mean, there's been so many. I'm trying to
think of one . . . they all go together" (4:4). Verbal abuse was a
normal mode of interaction between these adolescents and parents
in conflict situations and parents continued to engage in the conflict
even though they were being sworn at, insulted, or ridiculed. One
mother described her physical response to her adolescent's verbal
abuse to prevent it from escalating to physical or emotional abuse:

to take a swing at me and I grabbed her arm and spun her around so then I had her so
that her arms were crossed like this, and I was behind her holding onto her wrists. Well,
then, she was hitting me in the face with her head. And kicking me. . . . So, at that point
in time, I just took her down and sat on her and went through this for about half-an-hour
or s o . . . . And in a way, it kind of helped her understand a little bit that I wasn't going
to tolerate that anymore. So now, you know, when I say, "stop" she's attentive. She also
knows that she crossed that limit and had pushed it too far." (10:15-17). In these data,
fathers were more likely to defend themselves. Successful physical defense buffered
future adolescent aggression, except for those boys who became bigger and stronger than
their fathers and had abused the father once.
 Fall 2004 379
I'd back up, yeah. And then sometimes I would be the aggressor. If he'd come at me,
I'd go at him and then he didn't like it and he'd back off. So, it was almost like a
dance, you know. You just figure it all out and it's a routine. (7:23)

The individual abuse episodes no longer carried the same trauma they
initially did; rather, parents expected conflict with the adolescent to
result in some form of abuse.
All of these participants reported that any type of abusive episode
they experienced started with verbal abuse. Most participants experi-
enced all three types of abuse (19 out of 20), many on a regular basis.
Accordingly, parents considered an abusive interaction with their ad-
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olescent successful if they stopped verbal abuse from progressing to

physical or emotional abuse. This was clearly exemplified by one father
who explained what he felt was a "successful" physical abuse episode:
"The violence didn't get too serious. It stopped shortly after it started.
One of my levels of measuring whether it was successful or not was the
intensity of the violence" (1:22). As troubling as this is, parents con-
sidered the outcome of the abusive episode successful if they experi-
enced less severe abuse than in previous abuse episodes. For example,
"Swearing was not as bad as breaking something, breaking was not as
bad as hitting, hitting in the arm was not as bad as hitting in the head,
using a fist was better than using a weapon" (1:22). In attempts to
implement "successful" abuse episodes, parents concentrated on vary-
ing their approaches in how they dealt with the abuse in attempts to
prevent it. Over time, due to the lack of consequences for adolescents
who perpetuated abuse toward their parents, verbal, physical, and
emotional abuse became a normal mode of interaction for these fami-
lies.

Perceptions of the Parenting Role Outside the Family

Not only did abused parents believe their roles and communicative
behaviors changed within the family, they also perceived a changing of
their roles outside the family. Abused parents perceived these changes
were often a direct result of the legal system they were forced to
interact with.
Negative parental experiences with the court system. The more
knowledge the abusive adolescents and parents had about the court
system, the less parents felt able to control their abusive
adolescents. Adolescents found if they dialed or even threatened to
dial "911," parents often retreated from the conflict. Adults learned
they faced much more severe consequences from the judicial system
than did their adolescents. One mother explained such a situation:
It was late and it was time for him to come home and he did not want to do so. And
so I brought him into the house, because he was going to leave my yard and I says,
"No, you're not." So I brought him into the house, physically. And he says that I
threw him down the stairs, which I didn't.... And then he called the cops and during
this time, he was calling me, you know, "bitch." And you know, "I'm going to get you
 380 Adolescent-to-Parent Abuse

to go to jail, because you're nothing but an abusive fuckin' parent." And so, you know,
the cops came over that night.... So, and that's just one instance of many. (13:2)

A majority of these participants' reported physical or emotional

abuse episodes that escalated into involvement with the law—regard-
less of who dialed "911." A number of these parents faced legal charges
based on the accusations of their adolescents. Two of the parents spent
the night in jail before the situation was finally resolved which resulted
in placing the three other children in temporary care. Resolution of
this situation involved the court system and the child welfare system
and took over a year to conclude. Three other parents had child abuse
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charges brought against them; all of these charges were later dropped
upon further investigation.
For these parents, refusing to step back from a conflict episode that
eventually resulted in adolescent-to-parent abuse had serious affects.
Parents experiencing the effects of these false accusations of child
abuse on their families, jobs, and reputations, indicated they no longer
attempted to discipline their adolescents after the adolescent threat-
ened to dial "911," as it was not worth the possible consequences. Once
teens called "911" to report the parents for child abuse, parents who
may have physically defended themselves often stopped due to the
warnings of the court system and the threat of prosecution of child
abuse charges. It appears that adolescents who discovered they had
the power to report parents to law enforcement may be one factor that
inadvertently encouraged adolescents to continue the physical and
emotional abuse of their parents.
Amount of parental power. A final factor that emerged regarding
these parents' loss of ability to discipline their abusive children
effectively was the issue of power. When adolescents reach the age
of puberty, in most homes parents continue to have some power over
their teens and discipline continues to be effective. However, once
adolescents became abusive, the power and authority of parents in
the relationship began a downward slide that continued until the
child reached the age of 18. Throughout the years of abuse,
counselors, probation officers, and judges in the court system often
stated to abusive adolescents that once they were 18 years old they
could "do what they wanted" but until then, "they had to follow their
parents' rules" (9:39). A number of these parents often repeated this
fact to their abusive adolescents, adding that soon they would no
longer be required to "take care" (1:28) of the teen. Once the
adolescent reached the age of adulthood, parents had the legal
means to enforce his or her departure, seeing this as a way to regain
their power. These participants reported that the realistic threat of
forced departure often stopped or greatly reduced the now "young
adult's" abusive behavior.
 Fall 2004 381
Discussion
Recurring patterns of interactions within families represent family
systems; this is no different in families experiencing adolescent-to-
parent abuse episodes. The findings from this study provide insights
and implications to help understand the phenomenon of adolescent-to-
parent abuse.
First, participants were easily able to differentiate among types of
abuse—verbal, physical, and emotional, identifying verbal abuse as
the least harmful type of abuse and emotional abuse as the most
harmful. Although it is dangerous to assign a hierarchy of abuse, the
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results reveal these parents clearly identified the types of abuse and
readily assigned a hierarchy to the severity of abuse. Being able to
assign a hierarchy to the severity of the abuse may have further
allowed abused parents a manner to justify to themselves that their
children loved them and they loved their children regardless of the
abusive behavior. For example, if an adolescent implemented verbal
abuse, then they cared enough about the parent not to abuse them
physically or emotionally; keeping the adolescent in the home and
enduring certain types and levels of abuse meant the parent loved the
adolescent. If parents could measure the severity of abuse episodes by
comparing them to different types and previous episodes of abuse,
experiencing a less severe episode may provide hope to these parents
that the situation was improving.
These findings, however, do not support the assertion that emo-
tional abuse precedes physical abuse or that emotional abuse is a
result of physical abuse (Gelles & Straus, 1988; Marshall, 1994).
Rather these findings strongly support the notion that there is a
difference between emotional distress caused by verbal, physical, and
emotional abuse episodes; the types of abuse episodes being easily
recognizable by specific communicative behaviors occurring (Marshall,
1994; Price, 1996). For example, my results do support findings that
the ability to implement emotional abuse is often a consequence of a
previous physical abuse episode (Marshall, 1994; Price, 1996; Schuett,
1999). When these parents experienced physical abuse from their
adolescents, then an adolescent's threat to harm or kill the parent
during an emotionally abusive episode is perceived as a real possibil-
ity. Therefore, the assertion that the fear of physical abuse is a pow-
erful form of emotional abuse is supported in these results. These
findings are important to note because family researchers cannot begin
to discover causation, nor provide treatment options, unless we accept
these victims' perceptions that abuse episodes are hierarchical in na-
ture, with clear beginnings and endings, even when the episode esca-
lated from verbal to physical or emotional.
Second, the first episode of adolescent-to-parent abuse experienced
by these parents was verbal abuse. Over a period of time, when parents
 382 Adolescent-to-Parent Abuse

were unable to stop the verbal abuse, these adolescents progressed to

what parents perceived as a more severe type of abuse, either physical
or emotional. This finding supports research that verbal abuse may
herald, and become a catalyst for, physical and emotional abuse in
relationships (Berkowitz, 1990; Gelles, 1994; Gelles & Straus, 1988;
Infante, 1995; Infante, Chandler, & Rudd, 1989; Marshall, 1994;
Straus & Gelles, 1990). Participants in the present study stated that
verbal abuse was often an indicator of an impending physical or emo-
tional abuse episode. Rather than viewing verbal abuse as a prevent-
able "attack" by adolescents, these parents used verbal abuse to predict
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what might take place in a conflict if they did not adapt their commu-
nication responses. Therefore, adolescent-to-parent verbal abuse be-
came part of the family system and was used by parents as a useful
predictor of what was to come if not effectively dealt with.
Third, these parents experienced a gradual ineffectiveness in en-
forcing discipline with their abusive adolescents. Even though it is
suggested that adolescence is a time of storm and stress, very little
support for this assertion exists (Laursen, Coy, & Collins, 1998; Offer,
Ostrov, & Howard, 1989; Steinberg, 1988). Although part of parents'
inability to discipline their teens may be due to the normal develop-
ment of autonomy in adolescents (Brooks-Gunn & Reiter, 1990; Coo-
per, Grotevant, & Condon, 1983; Grotevant, 1998; Grotevant & Cooper,
1985), other researchers determined that as adolescents develop the
incidents of conflict decrease while the intensity of conflicts increase
(Comstock, 1994; Montemayor, 1983; Smetana, 1995). In the early teen
years, parents felt they were able to control most of the undesirable
actions of their adolescents. However, in later years these abused
parents felt they lost this ability as conflict episodes increased in
intensity until the age of 18, when parents were no longer legally
responsible for the adolescent's behavior. The implication of ineffec-
tiveness of parental discipline in adolescent-to-parent abuse is para-
mount; parents stated they experienced powerlessness in being able to
effectively engage in conflict in a way that would effectively stop the
abuse. Additionally, many of these abused parents believed they had
lost the power to parent and felt they could not turn to the legal system
for help.
Fourth, environmental issues impacting the family also come into
play. Societal norms provide a strong picture of what a "good" or "bad"
parent is; parents are expected to be able to control and to provide
training for their children resulting in well adjusted individuals who
can contribute to the family and society in a positive manner (Price,
1996; Schuett, 1999). As a result, parents' self-esteem issues are often
tied up in the parenting role. "Good kids" are associated with "good
parents" and "bad kids" are associated with "bad parents." Being
emotionally abused by an adolescent may confirm parents' existing
negative feelings about their parenting failure and these negative
 Fall 2004 383
feelings may be supported by the reactions of others who they may go
to for help.
Although people might think that the family is an isolated and
sovereign unit, environmental and societal factors play a large role in
the development of the hierarchical structure and roles within the
family system (Klein & White, 1996). All of the participants reported
that, at some time, either the abusive adolescent or the abused parent
had called "911" in their experience with adolescent-to-parent abuse.
Adolescents' willingness to dial "911" and bring charges against their
parents may be a tool abusive teens use to control parents' behavior.
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The adolescent may use "911" against their parents when the parents
attempted to defend themselves physically from, or to stop the physical
abuse from their teen. Possibly due to the lack of understanding of the
workings of adolescent-to-parent abuse families, law enforcement offi-
cials, in an attempt to protect children from abuse, initially believed
the accusations of these teens that they were being abused by their
parents—regardless of who dialed "911." A number of parents faced
charges of child abuse and some even found themselves in jail, which
may have allowed these adolescents to "punish" the parent for engag-
ing in a conflict that the adolescent may have felt they could not win.
Charging, or even just threatening to charge a parent with child abuse
became a way for these adolescents to control the parents and often
resulted in the abusive adolescents getting their own way. Such ac-
tions served to reinforce to these parents their inability to discipline or
control the actions and interactions with their children. We need to ask
how, if at all, does the ability of adolescents to dial "911" prevent
parents from physically protecting themselves and inadvertently en-
courage continued abuse by teens? One application of these findings is
to train law enforcement officers and those in court systems to under-
stand that some teens may use "911" as a weapon against parental
discipline.
Exploring this finding further, because of parents' concern about
charges of abuse, these participants adopted communication styles
toward their adolescents that would avoid being perceived as challeng-
ing, interacting in a negative manner, or touching the teen during a
conflict in any manner that could be misinterpreted as abuse. The
accusation of child abuse carried with it tremendous social and legal
ramifications for parents and became one way an abusive teen con-
trolled the reactions of his/her parents in abusive episodes. Although
parenting has many positive roles (e.g., encourager, provider, nur-
turer, teacher) and negative roles (e.g., disciplinarian) associated with
it, some of the roles parents are expected to enact, such as teacher and
disciplinarian, become ineffective. As a result, these parents stopped
implementing the role of disciplinarian and assumed the role of peace-
maker or moderator in an attempt to prevent escalation of a conflict
interaction into abuse. This changing of roles also changed the power
 384 Adolescent-to-Parent Abuse

dynamics and hierarchy necessary in healthy families (Harbin & Mad-

den, 1979; Price, 1996; Snyder et al., 1997). Although the role of
disciplinarian is only one role parents assume when raising children, it
is an important role. These parents believed they lost their power and
effectiveness to parent as a result of an inability to enforce conse-
quences.
Part of this loss of power may result from other environmental
factors surrounding the issue of family violence. One factor, the diffi-
culty western culture has in comprehending that there are parents
who are verbally, physically, and emotionally abused by their teens,
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creates a veil of denial and silence that may prevent parents from
seeking help (Harbin & Madden, 1979; Price, 1996). The existence of a
veil of denial may contribute to the fact little research is done on
adolescent-to-parent abuse because of the difficulty in getting these
victims' to speak out.
Finally, belief exists that adolescent-to-parent abuse often results
from the abuse that parents inflict on their adolescents (Dodge et al.,
1990; Pagelow, 1984; Straus et al., 1980). Although there is no empir-
ical support for this belief other than in the cases of parricide (i.e.,
adolescents who kill their parents) (Heidi, 1995), this assumption
directly influences how family researchers present, investigate, and
portray adolescent-to-parent abuse. As a result, parents' may blame
themselves for their own abuse and respond by not enforcing the
measures of parental control normal in an escalating conflict episode.
It is important to note that I did not specifically ask these participants
if they were abusive toward their adolescent; however, the descriptions
provided by these parents of the abuse episodes did not lead me to
believe they had inflicted abuse on their children. Rather, what ap-
peared to be supported is that child abuse rarely plays a role in
adolescent-to-parent abuse (Harbin & Madden, 1979; Heide, 1995;
Price, 1996).

Limitations and Future Research

One limitation of this study is that although adolescent-to-parent
abuse is placed in the context of the family, the abuse episode and its
impact on the parental roles within the family system are only re-
ported from the perspective of the abused parent. The retelling of the
abusive episodes may have resulted in negativity effects and attribu-
tion errors when participants reflected on their relationship with the
abusive adolescent. I addressed these issues as best I could. For ex-
ample, to prevent social desirability issues, I used an opening vignette
to help introduce the topic as well as explained to participants that
adolescent-to-parent abuse was experienced by other parents and
therefore was not necessarily the result of being a "bad" parent.
Through the use of pilot interviews, I was able to structure the inter-
view protocol in such a manner to insure that participants were de-
 Fall 2004 385
scribing the "whole" abuse episode to prevent as much attribution error
as possible. To prevent negativity effects during the interview, I con-
tinually asked clarifying and probing questions so participants would
share the full experience of their abuse and not just the negative
aspects (Creswell, 1998; Metts, Sprecher, & Cupach, 1991).
Second, I only asked parents about episodes of conflict resulting in
adolescent-to-parent abuse, which was only one aspect of the larger
adolescent-parent relationship. Adolescents lived in their parents'
homes for a number of years and in the context of that relationship
there most assuredly existed positive communication experiences as
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well as the abusive interactions. Using family systems theory, one can
assume that the communicative interactions within the family over
time may have set the stage for the development of adolescent-to-
parent abuse; though this has yet to be explored. These interviews do
not provide an overall picture of the parent-adolescent relationship nor
the overall communicative interactions within the family. Both of
these constitute areas for future research.
Finally, one limitation of this study concerns the similarity of these
families, particularly race and class homogeneity. Also, the partici-
pants recruited for this study were dedicated to understanding and
attempting to change the abusive situation and each had attended
numerous family counseling and parenting classes; families averaged
nine different attempts at types of intervention. Although this homo-
geneity may have helped participants to identify the relational culture
within the family, it may not represent families where abused parents
do not seek help. This raises a number of questions: What occurs
within families where the abuse is allowed to continue without outside
intervention? What transpires in the family when the abusive adoles-
cent is forced to leave the home before his or her eighteenth birthday?
What happens when abused parents respond to their adolescent with
violence or when parental violence precipitates adolescent violence? Is
the adolescent-parent conflict that results in abuse different in families
where there is no commitment to keeping the adolescent in the home?
These are very important questions that need further investigation
and cannot be answered with these data.
The findings presented in these adolescent-to-parent abuse families
impact the interactions between members in the family and create the
relational culture of the system. This study identified a number of
factors present in families experiencing adolescent-to-parent abuse
and they have serious implications regarding communication and re-
lationships. Providing these findings in adolescent-to-parent abuse
families offers a first step in understanding and promoting further
research on this unique and silent form of family violence.
 386 Adolescent-to-Parent Abuse

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