Are parents as great as they think they are? A longitudinal study of parent-child perceived parenting discrepancies on adolescent depressive symptoms in U.S. families of Chinese origin

Abstract

A developmental perspective is needed to reveal the long-lasting influence of perceived parenting discrepancies on youth depressive symptoms from early adolescence to emerging adulthood. This is particularly important for U.S. families of Chinese origin, an understudied U.S. population in research on perceived parenting discrepancies. The current study used an 8-year longitudinal dataset of 444 youth (M_wave1.age = 13.51, SD = 0.64; 54% girls) and their mothers (N = 393) and fathers (N = 374) from U.S. families of Chinese origin to examine how convergent and divergent perceptions of parenting in early adolescence relate to depressive symptoms in emerging adulthood (M_wave3.age = 21.39, SD = 0.62). Response surface analysis revealed that when mothers, but not fathers, reported lower (versus higher) levels of hostility than adolescents in early adolescence, youth reported higher levels of depressive symptoms in emerging adulthood. The finding highlights the need for early adolescent interventions to address parent-child perceived parenting discrepancies when mothers reported less hostility than adolescents, given their lasting impact on youth depressive symptoms in U.S. families of Chinese origin.

Keywords: U.S. families of Chinese origin; depressive symptoms; parent–child perceived parenting discrepancies.

FIGURE 1

Response surface analysis plot for mother–youth reported maternal hostility at Wave 1 and youth depressive symptoms at Wave 3. W, Wave. A1 is the slope of and a2 is the curve of the line of the congruence (i.e. when mother and youth reported convergent levels of hostility); a3 is the slope of and a4 is the curve of the line of the incongruence (i.e. when mothers and youth reported divergent levels of hostility); a5 is not interpreted in RSA. *p < .05.