Adolescent-to-Parent Violence Scale: Instrument Validation

Abstract

Objective: Adolescent-to-parent violence has recently gained attention in research on violence. There are, however, few research instruments and the existing instruments do not distinguish various aspects of violence. Furthermore, few studies focus specifically on adolescent children. This study proposes a new instrument, Adolescent Violence Towards Parents Scale (APVS), to measure adolescents psychical violence and physical violence towards their parents, which can be used to diagnose and assess Adolescent-to-Parent Violence (APV) in research and intervention contexts.

Method: The standardization of the instrument was done in two phases using a diagnostic survey of N = 54 technical high school students in Phase 1 and N = 224 in Phase 2. Factor analysis was used to determine the structure of the instrument. External validity of the instrument was tested using Pearson correlation coefficient r between the results obtained with the APVS and the results obtained with other established instruments to measure aggression. Reliability of the instrument was tested using internal consistency estimates by Cronbach’s coefficient.

Results: Statistical analysis asserted the two-factor structure of the scale confirming the theoretical distinction between psychical and physic violence. Accuracy and independence of the APVS subscales were demonstrated by low and moderate correlations with the subscales of other established instruments. Reliability of the instrument was also confirmed.

Conclusion: The APVS is a valid instrument to diagnose and assess APV in the context of academic research and violence prevention policy.