Systematic review of parent-youth discrepancies in reports of exposures to community violence

• In Event: Lost in conceptualization? Seeking new insights by examining the function and context of parenting practices

Abstract

Introduction: Past studies have consistently found that different informants do not agree on ratings of youth’s experiences. For instance, parents and youth report different prevalence and frequency ratings of youth’s exposure to community violence (ECV), with past studies demonstrating that parents typically underreport youth’s ECV compared to youth. However, recent studies with advanced statistical analyses revealed more nuanced patterns of reports. For example, some parents overreport youth’s ECV, others underreport it, and some parent-youth dyads agree that youth either did or did not experience ECV. These report patterns are theorized to provide valuable insight into parent-child relationships and family functioning, and have implications for youth emotional and behavioral development. The current systematic review synthesized 14 existing studies on parent-youth discrepancies in youth ECV to elucidate patterns of informant discrepancies and its correlates to relationship quality, family functioning, and youth outcomes.

Hypotheses: We hypothesized that (1) studies using traditional analytic approaches (e.g., difference scores) would confirm the general pattern of parental underreporting of youth ECV reported previously. However, studies using advanced analytic approaches (e.g., latent class analysis; LCA) would identify more nuanced patterns of informant discrepancies. (2) Higher parent-youth discrepancies (i.e., either parent under or overreporting youth ECV) would be associated with poorer parent-child relationships and family functioning. (3) Higher parent-youth discrepancies (i.e.., either parent under or overreporting youth ECV) would be associated with poorer youth emotional and behavioral functioning.

Study populations: The current systematic review included 12,824 parent-youth dyads from 14 studies with youth ranging from age 6-18. Five studies utilized data from Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (Earls & Visher, 1997; Earls et al., 2007) and two studies utilized data from Longitudinal Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (Runyan et al., 1998). Most samples included predominantly Black and Hispanic families with female caregivers.

Results: Most studies used traditional analytic approaches (n=12), including difference scores, t-tests, chi-squared tests, and McNemar’s test, to examine informant discrepancies and found general patterns of parents underreporting youth ECV. Studies that used advanced analytic approaches (n=2), such as LCA and polynomial regression, identified multiple patterns of parent-youth reports. These included parent-youth agreement on either low or high levels of youth ECV, parental underreporting, and parental overreporting compared to youth. Poor parent-youth relationship and family functioning (e.g., lower parental warmth, higher parental hostility) were associated with higher parent-youth discrepancies in youth ECV in four studies. There were mixed findings with patterns of informant discrepancies in youth ECV and youth functioning. Some studies found that higher informant discrepancies (n=3) and parental underreporting (n=2) were associated with higher youth psychopathology, whereas three studies including one study with advanced analytic approaches found that greater parent-youth agreement about high levels of witnessed violence was associated with higher youth psychopathology rather than informant discrepancies.

Discussion: Researchers should further examine parental underreporting and parent-youth agreement patterns on youth ECV for their implications on family functioning and youth development. Additionally, future studies should utilize advanced analytic approaches (e.g., LCA, polynomial regression) to identify nuanced patterns of parent-youth reports on youth ECV.

Authors

• Kajung Hong, San Diego State University
  Presenting Author

• Nick Morelli, San Diego State University

• Dalia Tabibian, San Diego State University/UC San Diego

• David Straub, San Diego State University/UC San Diego

• Miguel Villodas, San Diego State University