Abstract
Parents and adolescents often hold discrepant perceptions of parental emotion socialization, which reflect misunderstandings in parent-adolescent communication on emotions and have potential detrimental effects on mental health of adolescents. The present study investigated the associations between parent-adolescent congruence and discrepancy in parental emotion socialization perception to two specific negative emotions (anger and sadness) and depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents. A total of 372 adolescents (48.4% female, Mage = 13.43, SDage = 0.49) and their parents (79.6% mother, Mage = 41.15, SDage = 5.46) participated in this study. Both parents and adolescents reported perceived parental emotion socialization to anger and sadness, and adolescents reported depressive symptoms. Data were analyzed using polynomial regression and response surface analyses. Both congruence and discrepancy in parent and adolescent’s reports were associated with adolescent depressive symptoms. A higher level of adolescent depressive symptoms was associated with higher parent-adolescent congruence in supportive responses to anger, sadness, and nonsupportive responses to anger. A higher level of depressive symptoms was associated with inconsistent reporting of supportive responses to sadness and nonsupportive responses to anger (only when parents had a more positive view than adolescents). This study highlights the significance of evaluating parent-child communication process by assessing perceived emotion socialization from both parents and adolescents and analyzing the reporting congruence and discrepancy. It also suggests that enhancing effective communication regarding parental emotion socialization could be a promising target for adolescent mental health promotion programs.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the adolescents and parents who participated in this study. We are grateful to the teachers and school who assisted in the data collection.
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The present study was supported by Beijing Education Sciences Planning Project (Grant Number: BECA22128).
Data Sharing and DeclarationThe datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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J.H. contributed to research design, statistical analyses, interpretation of the data, and draft writing; T.Z. conceptualized the study, participated in research design and data collection, and revised the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final version of this manuscript.
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Approval was granted by the research ethics committee of Peking University Health Science Center. This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.
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Hu, J., Zhou, T. Parent-adolescent Congruence and Discrepancy in Perceived Parental Emotion Socialization to Anger and Sadness: Using Response Surface Analysis to Examine the Links with Adolescent Depressive Symptoms. J. Youth Adolescence 53, 67–78 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01919-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01919-y