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Discrepancies in Adolescents’ and Mothers’ Perceptions of the Family and Mothers’ Psychological Symptomatology

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Abstract

Research has shown that discrepancies in adolescents’ and their parents’ perceptions of the family are linked to adolescent adjustment. Of note, the majority of studies to date have focused on differences in perceptions between adolescents and their parents. However, recent research has suggested that convergence in adolescents’ and their parents’ perceptions of the family may be linked to adolescent psychological outcomes as well. To date, research examining adolescents’ and parents’ perceptions of the family in relation to outcomes has focused only on adolescent outcomes. Therefore, the goal of this study was to examine the relationship between adolescents’ and their mothers’ perceptions of the family and mothers’ psychological symptomatology. Surveys were administered to 141 adolescents (56 % girls) and their mothers during the spring of 2007. The results indicated that adolescents viewed the family more negatively in comparison to their mothers. In addition, interactions between adolescents’ and mothers’ reports of open communication, communication problems, and family satisfaction predicted mothers’ psychological symptoms. These interactions indicated that mothers reported the most psychological symptoms when adolescents and mothers agreed that family functioning was poor (e.g., low open communication, high communication problems, low family satisfaction). The findings from this study underscore the need to consider adolescents’ and parents’ perceptions of the family in tandem when considering parental psychological adjustment.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the schools and students who participated in the study. Special thanks go to members of the AAP staff, especially Kaitlin Flannery, Jessica Schulz, Kelly Cheeseman, Lisa Fong, Alyson Cavanaugh, Sara Bergamo, Ashley Malooly, Ashley Ings, and Magdalena Owczarska. This study was supported by NIH grant number K01-AA015059.

Authors’ Contributions

CMO conceived the study, collected the data, managed the data, wrote the method section, and co-wrote the introduction and discussion sections; RL conducted the statistical analyses, wrote the results section, and prepared the tables and figures; AD co-wrote the introduction and the discussion sections. All of the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

This study was supported by NIH grant number K01-AA015059 awarded to Christine McCauley Ohannessian.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, 282 Washington Street, Hartford, CT, 06106, USA

    Christine McCauley Ohannessian

  2. University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, USA

    Robert Laird

  3. University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Andres De Los Reyes

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  1. Christine McCauley Ohannessian
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Correspondence to Christine McCauley Ohannessian.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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The study was approved by the appropriate institutional and/or national research ethics committee and has been conducted in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Ohannessian, C.M., Laird, R. & De Los Reyes, A. Discrepancies in Adolescents’ and Mothers’ Perceptions of the Family and Mothers’ Psychological Symptomatology. J Youth Adolescence 45, 2011–2021 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-016-0477-3

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