‘The terrorist in my home’: teenagers’ violence towards parents – constructions of parent experiences in public online message boards Amanda Holt Senior Lecturer in Criminal Psychology, Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, University of Portsmouth, Ravelin House, Portsmouth, UK ABSTRACT Teenagers’ violence towards parents is a hidden and underexplored problem, particularly within the UK, and the stigma attached to such experiences makes research access difficult. In this study, two online message boards which featured parents’ posted accounts of their teenagers’ violence towards them were analysed. Using discourse analysis, three consistent discursive themes were identified: the emo- tional terrain of such experiences, the psychologisation of the child- as-‘perpetrator’ and parental responses to these complex experiences. Overall, these three themes were weaved together to produce over- arching narratives of powerlessness and loss of hope. The theoretical and practical implications of this analysis are discussed, including a consideration of how such online message boards enable and delimit parental agency. Correspondence: Amanda Holt, Criminal Psychology, Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, University of Portsmouth, Ravelin House, Museum Road, Portsmouth PO1 2QQ, UK E-mail: amanda.holt@port.ac.uk Keywords: adolescence, online methods, parenting, violence Accepted for publication: January 2011 LITERATURE REVIEW Experiences of child-to-parent violence Child-to-parent aggression and violence appears to be a prevalent yet hidden phenomenon. Overwhelmingly, what is written about family violence tends to con- struct the problem as violence perpetrated by adults (i.e. parents) towards their children. While this is of course much more likely, this can serve to obscure other forms of violence which operate within the family home. In the UK, researchers (including myself) working in the area of parenting and youth justice have iden- tified the existence of child-to-parent violence and have written about these findings (e.g. Holt 2009; Hunter et al. 2010). However, no qualitative research to date has explicitly focused on how parents experi- ence violence perpetrated by their children – or at least, how parents might construct such experiences – and how they are and/or might be supported. Such research is vital if statutory and voluntary support organizations are to adequately address a form of abuse which international research has found to produce both immediate and long-term harm to indi- viduals and families (see Cottrell & Monk 2004). Fur- thermore, such harms are likely to impact on any professional practice which aims to work with such families, and the limited international data which exist suggest that this kind of violence is more prevalent in families which are already experiencing multiple stres- sors (Kennair & Mellor 2007). However, finding out about such experiences and identifying support needs are extremely difficult: experiences of stigma is widely documented when experiencing violence in the home (e.g. Stanko 2003) and when parenting ‘problematic’ children and young people (e.g. Jackson & Mannix 2004). When these experiences are combined, it is likely to present a ‘double stigma’ and researchers need to identify a number of creative ways to access such parents if they are to learn more about it. Explor- ing the online public message boards which are used by parents who experience violence from their chil- dren may be one way of doing this. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2206.2011.00760.x 454 Child and Family Social Work 2011, 16, pp 454–463 © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd