Poster #131 - Discordance in Parents’ and Adolescents’ Perceptions of Parenting: A Meta-Analytic Study

• In Event: 3-003 - Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

In clinical and developmental studies of children and families, using multiple informants has become a “gold standard”; yet, different informants often provide inconsistent information (De Los Reyes et al., 2015; Korelitz & Garber, 2016). Such informant discordance creates challenges for clinicians in delivering services to patients and for researchers in drawing conclusions from study findings. Accumulating studies indicate that parent-adolescent discordance in their reports of parenting can have significant implications for adolescent outcomes (e.g., Hou, Kim, & Benner, 2017; Laird & De Los Reyes, 2013). Nevertheless, extant studies are inconsistent regarding the extent and predictors of parent-adolescent discordance and whether discordance relates to more positive or more negative adolescent outcomes. The current meta-analytic study aimed to shed light on these issues by examining potential moderators (e.g., adolescent, parent, and family characteristics) on (1) the relation between parent- and adolescent-reported parenting (operationalized as bivariate correlations and mean-level differences between parent- and adolescent-reported parenting) and (2) the relation between parent-adolescent parenting discordance and adolescent outcomes (operationalized as the bivariate correlations between parent-adolescent parenting difference scores and adolescent outcomes).

We conducted systematic literature search of academic journal articles and dissertations, abstract screening, full text screening, and emailed authors when necessary data were not available in the paper. A total of 313 articles included both parent- and adolescent-reported parenting at the same wave and provided sufficient data to calculate effect sizes of the relation between parent- and adolescent-reported parenting. Among them, 24 studies examined how parent-adolescent parenting discordance relates to adolescent outcomes and provided sufficient data to calculate effect sizes. Most of these studies provided multiple dependent effect sizes. We used a robust standard error estimation technique to handle dependence in effect sizes (Hedges et al., 2010).

By synthesizing the 313 studies, the current study demonstrated a small yet statistically significant correlation between parent- and adolescent-reported parenting (r = .276, 95% CI [.262, .290]); parents perceived parenting more positively than adolescents, with a small but statistically significant mean-level difference (g = .242, 95% CI [0.188, 0.296]). The levels of parent-adolescent discordance were higher for younger (versus older) and male (versus female) adolescents, for non-clinical parents (versus parents with internalizing symptoms), in more individualistic societies such as the United States, and in ethnic minority (versus White), low (versus high) socioeconomic status, and non-intact (versus intact) families among US samples. By meta-analyzing the 24 studies, the current study found that parents’ more positive perceptions of parenting relative to adolescents negatively related to adolescent outcomes (r = -.083, 95% CI [-.129, -0.036]). This negative association was stronger among ethnic minority families than White families in the US.

Together, the current meta-analyses provide comprehensive information regarding (1) who are most likely to experience parent-adolescent discordance in reports of parenting and (2) whether and for whom parent-adolescent parenting discordance relates to more negative outcomes. These findings have important implications for research and clinical practice, including how to better deal with informant discordance, what future studies need to be done, and what populations should be particularly targeted for intervention.

Authors

• Yang Hou, University of Texas in Austin
  Presenting Author

• Aprile D. Benner, University of Texas at Austin
  Non-Presenting Author

• Su Yeong Kim, University of Texas at Austin
  Non-Presenting Author

• Shanting Chen, University of Texas at Austin
  Non-Presenting Author

• Shiri Spitz, University of Texas at Austin
  Non-Presenting Author

• Yi Shi, University of Texas at Austin
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tasha Beretvas, University of Texas at Austin
  Non-Presenting Author