(In)Congruent Parent–Child Reports of Parental Behaviors and Later Child Outcomes

Abstract

This study evaluated hypothesized relations of (in)congruent parent–child perceptions of parental warmth and hostility at age 7 with changes in child and parent reports of children’s depressive symptoms and rule-breaking behaviors from ages 7 to 10. Dyads consisted of 193 parents (93.3% biological mothers) and children (49.2% female; 46.1% Latinx) drawn from a longitudinal study of child development. Child and parent reports of parental warmth and hostility were collected using parallel measures at age 7. Child and parent reports of child depressive symptoms and rule-breaking behaviors were collected at ages 7 and 10. After controlling for children’s prior symptomatology and individual informant effects, polynomial regression analyses revealed a significant relation between (in)congruent perceptions of parental warmth and child-reported depressive symptoms. Specifically, congruent perceptions of high parental warmth at age 7 predicted decreased levels of child-reported depressive symptoms from ages 7 to 10, whereas congruent perceptions of low parental warmth predicted increased levels of child-reported depressive symptoms, especially among daughters. (In)congruent perceptions of parental hostility were related to child-reported rule-breaking behaviors. Specifically, congruent perceptions of high parental hostility predicted increased rates of child-reported rule-breaking behaviors, whereas incongruent perceptions of high parent-reported and low child-reported parental hostility predicted decreased rates of child-reported rule-breaking behaviors, especially among sons. This study documented the adaptive significance of parent–child (in)congruence in perceptions of parenting across middle childhood and revealed the potential specificity of relations by domain of adaptation and/or gender, thereby suggesting important implications for risk identification and treatment.