Discrepancies Between Youth and Mothers’ Perceptions of Their Mother–Child Relationship Quality and Self-Disclosure: Implications for Youth- and Mother-Reported Youth Adjustment

Abstract

Recently, researchers have devoted greater attention to understanding how disagreement between mothers and their children regarding parent–child relationship quality and functioning impacts youth adjustment. While some view discrepancies as indices of developmentally appropriate individuation, discrepancies regarding family functioning also have been found to predict problematic youth functioning. This study examined the effects of mother–child discrepancies for mother–child relationship qualities and youth self-disclosure on youth-and mother-reported youth internalizing and externalizing adjustment. 232 fifth, eighth, and 11th grade youth (55 % female) and their mothers completed measures of mother–child relationship quality, youth self-disclosure, and youth internalizing and externalizing adjustment. For internalizing adjustment, few effects of discrepancy on adjustment were evident. Instead, informant-specific perceptions of mother–child relationship functioning were most relevant for informant-specific reports of youth adjustment. For youth externalizing adjustment, the magnitude of mother–child discrepancies for negative relationship quality and for youth self-disclosure predicted lower levels of problematic externalizing behavior from both the children’s and the mothers’ perspectives, which could indicate a lack of parent–child communication. Future research is needed to fully understand how discrepancies in negative or mal-adaptive aspects of mother–child relationships are formed (e.g., low disclosure), are understood by the members of and contribute to the onset, maintenance, and treatment of problematic behavioral outcomes.

Discrepancies in Perceptions of Close Relationships of Young Adolescents: A Risk for Psychopathology?

“…Discrepant perceptions of warmth between adolescents and their parents may be a natural consequence of a renegotiation of family relationships as part of the adolescents' separation-individuation process, and therefore may not be predictive of symptoms of psychopathology (Feinberg et al 2000;Reidler and Swenson 2012;Sher-Censor et al 2012). Conversely, incongruent perceptions with best friends may reflect ignorance or misinterpretations of social feedback of the best friend and as such contribute to developmental problems over time.…”

“…Outsiders can perhaps observe interactions and communication between relationship partners but these are only proxies of relationship quality at best. Consequently, researchers have argued that the meaning of discrepant perceptions can only be understood on the basis of a variety of studies using different conceptualizations of discrepancies and methods (e.g., Reidler and Swenson 2012). To address this issue as much as possible, we studied two different types of close (dyadic) relationships, that is the mother-child relationship and the adolescent-best friend relationship.…”

“…Although the exact processes are unclear, negatively-biased self and self-other evaluations may result from an attentional bias and a memory bias for negative information relative to positive information (Jacobs et al 2008). Recent findings demonstrate that underestimations of social acceptance, quality of parenting, and parent-child relationship quality are associated with heightened levels of depressive symptoms (Ehrlich et al 2013;Reidler and Swenson 2012). However, few longitudinal studies have been conducted to test whether negatively-biased self-and self-other perceptions can predict increases in depressive symptoms (Jacobs et al 2008) and the results of these few studies have been mixed.…”

Parent–Child Discrepancies in Reports of Parental Monitoring and Their Relationship to Adolescent Alcohol-Related Behaviors

“…Discrepancies between parents’ and child’s reporting have been examined across a number of parenting characteristics, including discipline (Guion, Mrug, & Windle, 2009), support (Gaylord, Kitzmann, & Coleman, 2003; Tien et al, 1994), control (Gonzales et al, 1996), parent-child relationship quality (Reidler & Swenson, 2012), and, most germane to the current study, parental monitoring behaviors (e.g., De Los Reyes et al, 2010; Lippold et al, 2011). These discrepancies have been investigated as risk factors, following the premise that if parents and adolescents disagree, the risk of adverse outcomes may be elevated (for a review, see De Los Reyes, 2011).…”

“…For example, Maurizi, Gershoff, and Aber (2012) found that parent-child discrepancies in reports of parental affection, punitiveness, and control were cross-sectionally associated with adolescents’ symptoms of anxiety and conduct disorder. Other researchers have focused on discrepancies between parents’ and adolescents’ perceptions of relationship quality and their associations with children’s outcomes, including adolescents’ externalizing and internalizing problems (Pelton, Steele, Chance, Forehand, & The Family Health Project Research Group, 2001; Reidler & Swenson, 2012), with larger discrepancies tending to be associated with greater problems.…”