The importance of the parent-child relationship in understanding physical violence among teenage girls-Results of a mixed-methods study

Abstract

This article addresses the question: What is the explanatory power of the theoretical constructs `parenting style' and `parent-child relationship' for understanding violence among teenage girls? Using a sequential mixed-methods design, we combined data from different sources (interviews and questionnaires) analysed by different methods (grounded theory and correspondence analysis). Within this mixed-methods design, we compared the results of the qualitative analysis of interviews with violence-orientated girls with the results of the correspondence analysis of the cross-sectional survey (n= 243, mean age= 15.2, SD = 1,91). There is a strong relationship between the form of violence applied by the girls and the characteristics of the family dynamics. The utilization of different theoretical constructs (i.e., parenting style and parent-child relationship) reveals these dynamics and enables theoretical reflection on this subject.