Caregiver-youth Agreement About Parental Warmth is Related to Youth Psychosocial Functioning

• In Event: Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Topic - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

Multi-informant methods using parent and child reports of parenting have consistently demonstrated low to moderate correlations when assessing agreement on both parenting and youth behaviors (Korelitz & Garber, 2016). The current study aimed to investigate levels of agreement between caregivers and youth when reporting on parental warmth, youth internalizing behaviors, and youth externalizing behaviors in a sample of 85 urban 13 to 17 year olds (M age = 15.08, SD = 1.42; 61.2% girls; 78.8% African American) and their caregivers (91.8% biological mothers; 76.5% African American; 38.8% married/living with partner; 51.8% earning below $29,999 per year). Further, the current study aimed to investigate the cross-sectional relationship between agreement of caregiver and youth reports of warm parenting, as well as an interaction between caregiver and youth reports, in relation to (a) youth reported internalizing problems, (b) youth reported externalizing problems, (c) caregiver reported internalizing problems in youth, and (d) caregiver reported externalizing problems in youth. Caregiver reported warmth and youth reported warmth had a significant positive correlation, Pearson’s r = .374, p < .001. A paired samples t-test indicated that caregivers reported significantly more warm parenting behaviors than their teens reported, t(83) = - 4.60, p < .001. Caregiver and youth reported internalizing problems were significantly positively correlated with one another (r = .407, p < .001), and they did not significantly differ. Caregiver and youth reported externalizing problems were significantly positively correlated with one another (r = .428, p < .001), and they did not significantly differ from one another. Four separate moderated hierarchical regression models were utilized to test each of these statistical relations. The analyses revealed a significant interaction between youth and caregiver reports when regressed on youth reported internalizing problems at Time 1. As depicted in Figure 1, the highest internalizing problems were reported by youth when youth reported low (-1 SD) parental warmth and caregivers reported high warmth (+ 1 SD). In contrast, the lowest internalizing problems were reported by youth at Time 1 when both youth and caregiver agreed on high parental warmth. Overall, the interaction between different levels of agreement on parental warmth showed a significant cross-sectional relationship with youth reported internalizing problems. Thus, results demonstrated that agreement and disagreement between caregiver and youth reports of parenting may provide unique information into the youth’s psychosocial functioning. These results suggest the importance of considering the relationships between the rates of agreement and disagreement about parenting and youth psychosocial functioning in research and clinical settings.

Authors

• Mareena Atalla, Wayne State University
  Presenting Author

• Bridget Murphy, UTHealth San Antonio
  Non-Presenting Author

• Yi Tak Tsang, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
  Non-Presenting Author

• Velinka Marton, Wayne State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Da' Jonae Foster, Wayne State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marilyn Franklin, Wayne State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Douglas Barnett, Wayne State University
  Non-Presenting Author