Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 May;53(5):1101-1118.
doi: 10.1007/s10964-023-01938-9. Epub 2024 Jan 13.

Parent-Child Discrepancies in Perceived Parental Control and Their Associations with Children's Prosocial Behaviors in Early Adolescence within Chinese Families

Runzhu Zhang  1 , Zhenhong Wang  2
Affiliations

Parent-Child Discrepancies in Perceived Parental Control and Their Associations with Children's Prosocial Behaviors in Early Adolescence within Chinese Families

Runzhu Zhang et al. J Youth Adolesc. 2024 May.

Abstract

How parent-child discrepancies in perceived parental control associate with children's prosocial behaviors remains unknown. This study examined this issue in 578 Chinese children (297 girls, Mage = 10.85, SDage = 0.72) and their mothers and fathers. Parents and children reported parental psychological and behavioral control, and children reported their prosocial behaviors. The latent difference scores modeling showed that compared to parents' perceptions, children's higher perceptions of guilt induction were related to more public prosocial behaviors; higher perceptions of love withdrawal were linked to fewer altruistic, compliant, emotional, and dire prosocial behaviors; and higher reporting of solicitation was associated with more general prosocial behaviors. The findings revealed the association between parent-child discrepancies and early adolescents' prosocial behaviors, supporting both the discrepancy-maladaptive hypotheses and the discrepancy-adaptive hypotheses within Chinese families.

Keywords: Latent difference scores; Parent-child discrepancy; Parental behavioral control; Parental psychological control; Prosocial behaviors.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Abar, C. C., Jackson, K. M., Colby, S. M., & Barnett, N. P. (2015). Parent–child discrepancies in reports of parental monitoring and their relationship to adolescent alcohol-related behaviors. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 44(9), 1688–1701. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-014-0143-6 . - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cao, J., Li, X., Ye, Z., Xie, M., & Lin, D. (2022). Parental psychological and behavioral control and positive youth development among young Chinese adolescents: The mediating role of basic psychological needs satisfaction. Current Psychology, 41(7), 4645–4656. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00980-1 . - DOI
    1. Carlo, G., Hausmann, A., Christiansen, S., & Randall, B. A. (2003). Sociocognitive and behavioral correlates of a measure of prosocial tendencies for adolescents. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 23(1), 107–134. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431602239132 . - DOI
    1. Carlo, G., & Padilla-Walker, L. (2020). Adolescents’ prosocial behaviors through a multidimensional and multicultural lens. Child Development Perspectives, 14(4), 265–272. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12391 . - DOI
    1. Carlo, G., Padilla-Walker, L. M., & Nielson, M. G. (2015). Longitudinal bidirectional relations between adolescents’ sympathy and prosocial behavior. Developmental Psychology, 51(12), 1771–1777. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000056 . - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources