Child to Parent Aggression and Violence: A Guidebook for Parents and Practitioners (New Frontiers in Forensic Psychology)

Parent-directed aggression and violence by children is a complex issue and may not be explained by focusing upon a single factor. The affected parents tend to delay seeking help from professionals due to not knowing where to seek help or even an inability to identify their experiences as a problem. This book provides parents and professionals with the much-needed information to tackle this incidence.

In this book, Hue San Kuay and Graham Towl draw upon the evidence from past studies and case examples to describe the occurrence of child to parent aggression and violence, and highlight the roles by individuals and communities in intervening and preventing agression and violence. The nature-versus-nurture debate is included and callous-unemotional traits are explained as a predictor of aggression. The effect of parent-directed aggression is discussed, and prevention and intervention methods are presented. Delaying help-seeking could lead to serious consequences and make it harder to effectively intervene.

Child to Parent Aggression and Violence is an essential read for practitioners and researchers working with parents, and most importantly, for parents themselves. This book includes suggestions for interventions, self-assessment on parent-directed aggression by children, and points of contact as reference to ease the process for both parents and practitioners.

The authors will donate their royalties in full to Family Lives, UK. This organisation was registered as a charity in 1999. Previously known as Parentline, they provide support for families through a helpline and also offer drop-in sessions. They give tailored parental support within the community and schools, and offer support on issues such as bullying, special educational needs, and support for specific groups.

Hue San Kuay is a Psychology lecturer in the School of Medical Sciences at Universiti Sains Malaysia, where her research focuses on aggression among young people, especially towards parents. Hue San was a team member of the forensic child and adolescent mental health unit, where she worked closely with young people who perpetrated aggression towards family members and their parents.

Graham Towl is Professor of Forensic Psychology and Associate Pro Vice Chancellor at Durham University, UK. He is the co-author of Tackling Sexual Violence at Universities: An International Perspective (2019).