3-222 - Is it a Six or a Nine? Quantifying Parent-Adolescent Perspectives in Dynamic Interpersonal Interactions

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Parents and adolescents often differ in their perceptions of each other’s behavior, which has implications for adolescent adjustment and the relationship. However, few studies have examined such perspectives during real-time interactions. These papers use dynamic, observational methodologies to offer insight into the causes and consequences of differing parent-adolescent perceptions across adolescence.

Paper 1 examined associations between parent and adolescent subjective ratings of involvement, listening, and support during a disclosure task and adolescent disclosure, and whether this association was moderated by demographic characteristics. Multi-level modeling generally indicates that youths’ positive perceptions were associated with greater disclosure, while parents’ positive perceptions were associated with less disclosure, with important differences by domain, gender, and birth order.   

Using Bayesian estimation, paper 2 found that adolescent adjustment predicts adolescents’ perceptions of negative parenting during guilt and conflict discussions, over and above mothers’ reports, which in turn predicts adolescent perceptions of parents’ behavior. Findings indicate that biased perceptions of maternal communication behavior may account for some associations between adolescent-reported hostile parenting and internalizing symptoms.

Paper 3 used a similar conflict discussion task in a diverse sample of adolescents with type 1 diabetes and their parents. Following the discussion, adolescents and parents rated their own and the other’s emotions once per minute, revealing that empathic accuracy (matches between self and other ratings) predicted better relationship, mental, and physical health outcomes.

The discussant will highlight how these studies advance our understanding of the processes by which parent-adolescent perceptions influence adolescent adjustment and relationships during this crucial developmental period.

Sub Unit

• Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Chair

• Alexandra Main, University of California, Merced

Discussant

• Nancy Darling, Oberlin University

Individual Presentations

• Associations Between Subjective Ratings of Parent and Adolescent Behaviors During Interactions and Adolescent Disclosure - Presenting Author: Nicole Campione-Barr, University of Missouri; Non-Presenting Author: Christopher Odudu, University of Missouri; Non-Presenting Author: Sonia E. Giron, University of Missouri; Non-Presenting Author: Sarah Killoren, University of Missouri

• “That’s Not What I Heard!”: Adolescent Internalizing Impacts Teen Perceptions of Conversations with Mothers - Presenting Author: Wendy Meredith Rote, University of South Florida St. Petersburg; Non-Presenting Author: Claire Kinney, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg

• Parents’ and Adolescents’ Empathic Accuracy in the Context of Managing Type 1 Diabetes - Presenting Author: Alexandra Main, University of California, Merced; Non-Presenting Author: Carmen Kho, University of California, Merced; Non-Presenting Author: Deborah Wiebe, University of California, Merced; Non-Presenting Author: Linda Cameron, University of California, Merced; Non-Presenting Author: Jennifer Raymond, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles