Validation of the Persian Version of Child-to-Parent Aggression Questionnaire and the Prevalence of Child to Parent Aggression in North West of Iran.

BACKGROUND

Child-to-parent aggression is a public health issue in the communities. The aim of this study was to validation of 10-item questionnaire of child-to-parent aggression (CPA).

METHODS

The standard guideline of World Health Organization was applied for validation of the original CPA questionnaire (CPAQ). The face validity index (FVI), content validity index (CVI), and content validity ratio (CVR) were assessed. We applied confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using Lisrel 8.80. To evaluate the reliability, Cronbach's alpha and internal consistency coefficient (ICC) were calculated. In total, 258 adolescents of 12-18 years, filled out the Persian CPAQ, and their parents filled out Persian socioeconomic status (SES) questionnaire. The regression analysis via SPSS 16.0 was conducted.

RESULTS

Cronbach's alpha was 0.83. The ICC was 0.812 and 0.879 for aggression questionnaire against fathers and mothers, respectively. The prevalence of psychological violence against mother or father was 77.1% and was 13.2% for physical violence in all participants. The rates of severe psychological and physical violence were 15.5% and 3.9%, respectively. In regression analysis, boys were 89% more likely to perpetrate severe physical aggression toward at least one of parents than girls (95%CI: 0.14-0.89). Daughters committed meaningfully more psychological (P = 0.004) and physical violence (P = 0.041) against mothers than fathers. SES was significantly related to psychological violence toward both parents (P = 0.025).

CONCLUSIONS

The Persian version of CPA tool had acceptable validity and reliability and can be used for screening. The high prevalence of children's and adolescent's aggression against their parents calls for action to plan for educational consulting interventions.