title: Adolescents' aggression to parents: longitudinal links with parents' physical aggression.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether parents' previous physical aggression (PPA) exhibited during early adolescence is associated with adolescents' subsequent parent-directed aggression even beyond parents' concurrent physical aggression (CPA) and to investigate whether adolescents' emotion dysregulation and attitudes condoning child-to-parent aggression moderate associations.
  
  
  METHODS
  Adolescents (N = 93) and their parents participated in a prospective longitudinal study. Adolescents and parents reported at waves 1-3 on four types of parents' PPA (mother to adolescent, father to adolescent, mother to father, and father to mother). Wave 3 assessments also included adolescents' emotion dysregulation, attitudes condoning aggression, and externalizing behaviors. At waves 4 and 5, adolescents and parents reported on adolescents' parent-directed physical aggression, property damage, and verbal aggression and on parents' CPA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Parents' PPA emerged as a significant indicator of adolescents' parent-directed physical aggression (odds ratio [OR]: 1.25, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.0-1.55; p = .047), property damage (OR: 1.29, 95% CI: 1.1-1.5, p = .002), and verbal aggression (OR: 1.35, 95% CI: 1.15-1.6, p < .001) even controlling for adolescents' sex, externalizing behaviors, and family income. When controlling for parents' CPA, previous mother-to-adolescent aggression still predicted adolescents' parent-directed physical aggression (OR: 5.56, 95% CI: 1.82-17.0, p = .003), and father-to-mother aggression predicted adolescents' parent-directed verbal aggression (OR: 1.86, 95% CI: 1.0-3.3, p = .036). Emotion dysregulation and attitudes condoning aggression did not produce direct or moderated the effects.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Adolescents' parent-directed aggression deserves greater attention in discourse about lasting, adverse effects of even minor forms of parents' physical aggression. Future research should investigate parent-directed aggression as an early signal of aggression into adulthood.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California. Electronic address: margolin@usc.edu.
authors.forename: Gayla
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Margolin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.
authors.forename: Brian R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Baucom
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D054541:Family Conflict / Q000523:psychology*; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D011678:Punishment / Q000523:psychology; D013694:Temperament
keywords: Adolescence; Aggression; Domestic violence; Families; Parent-directed aggression; Parent-to-child relationship