Parent-adolescent violence and later behavioral health problems among homeless and housed youth

Parent-adolescent violence (i.e., violence between parents and adolescents) is an important pathway to homelessness and predicts poor behavioral health outcomes among youth. However, few studies have examined links between parent violence and outcomes among youth who are homeless. Existing research has also tended to ignore adolescent violence toward parents, despite evidence that mutual violence is common. The current study examines prospective links of parent-adolescent violence to outcomes among youth who were homeless and demographically matched youth, through two complementary substudies: (a) an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of items measuring parent and adolescent violence combined in the same analysis; and (b) an examination of predictive relationships between the factors identified in the EFA and behavioral health problems, including mental health and alcohol abuse problems. Predictive relationships were examined in the overall sample and by gender, ethnic, and housing status subgroups. Results of the EFA suggested that parent-adolescent violence includes intraindividual (i.e., separate parent and adolescent) physical components and a shared psychological component. Each of these components contributed uniquely to predicting later youth behavioral health. Implications for research and practice with youth who are homeless are discussed.