Perceptions of Parenting from the Parent and Adolescent: Does a Mismatch in Perceptions Matter? (WITHDRAWN)

Background: Parenting is often evaluated through well-validated constructs, observational assessments, and self-reports of parenting behaviors. However, while studies often ask parents how close and satisfied they feel with their child, the focal child of interest is rarely asked about their perceptions of their parental relationship within the same study. Youth’s perception of their relationship with parents has been found as an important predictor of adolescent and adult outcomes. Furthermore, an adolescent-parent relationship of high quality and satisfaction can be a very salient protective factor for the youth during their adolescent and adult life stage. Therefore, it seems important to understand how both the parent and youth’s’ perspectives predict behavior and youth outcomes later in life, and how a mismatch between the parent and youth’s perspective may have a different predictive effect of youth outcomes. Thus, this paper has two main objectives: 1) Test the associations of adult and youth perceptions of parenting with youth’s later outcomes; and 2) Test the associations of a mismatch in perceptions with youth’s later outcomes, comparing these results with the previous objective.

Method: Our analytic sample uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a nationally representative study that follows adolescents in grades 7 through 12 across four waves of interviews into adulthood. For the purpose of our analyses, we used data from the Parenting Questionnaire, Wave I, and Wave III (N=8,527). We utilized measures of parent and youth perceptions of their relationship, youth behavioral and achievement outcomes at Wave 1 and Wave III, and other contextual factors. Potential differences in perceptions and youth outcomes were examined using mean differences tests and regressions.

Results: Results showed that overall, parental and youth perceptions of parenting tended to match fairly well. However, about 20% of youth reported less satisfaction and closeness than their parents. Interestingly, youth who reported a mismatch in satisfaction were more likely to be in a family structure with  a biological mother and male partner. Matched reports of high satisfaction and closeness significantly predicted decreased delinquency, lower depression, and higher school engagement in youth at Wave 1 and Wave 3. Youth and parents with a matched report of closeness also spent significantly more time with their parents (e.g., shopping, going to the movies, talking about school). The 20% of youth who perceived lower satisfaction and closeness than their parents reported significantly higher levels of depression and lower academic achievement in Wave III than the youth with the same perceptions as their parents.

Conclusions/Implications: Our findings suggest that a matching perception of relationship quality in both the youth and parents is associated with more positive outcomes later in life. This may be due to higher levels of communication between the parent and youth, and/or that the parent and youth with matching satisfaction levels are likely to spend more time together. This study has implications for understanding the importance of assessing both parent and youth perceptions when trying to gauge the importance of parenting in adolescent development and outcomes.