The Social Perception of Adolescent-to-Parent Violence: Understanding Victim-Blaming

Abstract

The impact of social and cultural variables on adolescent-to-parent violence has been scarcely studied. Research suggests that a cultural context of sexist victim-blaming, as well as the adolescent's gender, influences the social perception of APV. This study analyzes the impact of two variables on victim-blaming: hostile sexism and the belief that violence is the result of poor parenting, exploring whether it varies according to the adolescent's gender. 556 participants were assigned to one of two conditions, one involving a daughter and the other involving a son. Results show that victim-blaming was higher for scenarios involving a daughter. Linear regressions indicated that victim blaming can be explained by hostile sexist attitudes and by the belief that violence results from poor parenting, which jointly explain 13% of the variance for cases involving a son and 32% for cases involving a daughter. The results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications.