Family psychologists and researchers have identified an increase in the number of cases of parents being abused by their kids, which they attribute to the sense of entitlement with which children grow up today.

"Much of the violence relates to young people wanting their parent to do something for them, or money or consumer goods like an iPhone or beauty products," said teen abuse researcher Jo Howard, who is also the executive manager at family support service Kildonan Uniting Care.

Victorian Children's Court statistics show that more than 870 children were placed on family violence intervention orders in 2014 – a rate that has almost doubled in the past five years.

Police statistics also show 6000 family violence reports were made in the same year by parents against children aged under 24 – including against 38 children under 10.

Ms Howard said that while some abusive teens had grown up in homes where there was trauma, violence, poverty and separation, others were simply products of the current parenting fashion of bolstering children's self-esteem.

"There is a strong focus on supporting young people's self-esteem, protecting them from any risk, they shouldn't suffer any disappointment, we have to do everything to support them," Ms Howard said. "They don't get to experience resilience, delayed gratification, or conflict resolution. They've learnt to demand and escalate their behaviour until their parents give in."

Ms Howard said two-thirds of perpetrators were male, and more than 80 per cent of victims were the mother. The peak age for violence is 15 to 17. Canadian research suggests one in 15 families with teenagers experience this abuse, but there is no comparable research on Australian families.

Psychologists said parents were often unsure whether the abuse was just normal teenage acting-out behaviour, so they didn't clamp down on it early enough. The abuse tends to begin with verbal abuse, gradually progresses to property damage (such as walls and doors being kicked in), and ultimately physical assault of a parent.

"The first act of violence, parents are so shocked and taken aback they don't know how to respond," Ms Howard said. "It escalates to the point where parents are too intimidated and scared to stop the behaviour."

Child psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg said research from  the past five years has  shown that coping with stress is the number one issue for 15 to 19-year-olds.