Cyber Child-to-Parent Violence: Assessment and Prevalence According to Adolescents' and Parents' Reports

Unlike other forms of violence, such as bullying or dating violence, which have been studied both offline and online, Child-to-Parent Violence (CPV) has primarily been analyzed in offline contexts, with research on its online form still in its early stages. Moreover, no standardized instruments currently exist to assess Cyber-CPV. Thus, the primary objectives of this study were to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Cyber-Child-to-Parent Violence Questionnaire-Adolescent (Cyber-CPVQ-A) and to assess the prevalence of and gender differences in Cyber-CPV from the perspective of adolescents (Study 1) and their parents using the Cyber-Child-to-Parent Violence Questionnaire-Parent (Cyber-CPVQ-P) (Study 2).

A total of 1597 adolescents participated in Study 1 (49.8% female, 45.5% male, and 0.7% identifying as other; M_age = 14.18, SD = 1.59). 91.3% of the participants were from Spain. In Study 2, 563 parents participated (72.5% mothers and 27.5% fathers; M_age = 49.00, SD = 4.87), of whom 86.9% were Spanish.

In Study 1, a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) supported a bifactor structure comprising of a general Cyber-CPV factor and two specific factors: one for CPV toward the mother (Cyber-CMV) and another toward the father (Cyber-CFV) based on the adolescent-reported version (Cyber-CPVQ-A). In Study 2, a CFA confirmed a unidimensional structure for the parent-reported version (Cyber-CPVQ-P).

Both scales demonstrated strong internal consistency. The prevalence of Cyber-CPV was high in the community population. This study provides two valid and reliable instruments for assessing Cyber-CPV in adolescents and parents, enabling a more comprehensive measurement of CPV.