Parent–child discrepancies in the assessment of children’s and adolescents’ happiness

Abstract

In this study, we assessed parent–child agreement in the perception of children’s general happiness or well-being in typically developing children (10- and 11-year-olds, n=172) and adolescents (15- and 16-year-olds, n=185). Despite parent and child reporters providing internally consistent responses in the General Happiness single-item scale and the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire–Short Form, their perceptions about children’s and adolescents’ general happiness did not correlate. Parents of 10- and 11-year-olds significantly overestimated children’s happiness, supporting previous literature on the parents’ positivity bias effect. However, parents of 15- and 16-year-olds showed the reverse pattern by underestimating adolescents’ happiness. Furthermore, parents’ self-reported happiness or well-being (reported 6 months later) significantly correlated with their estimations of children’s and adolescents’ happiness. Therefore, these results suggest a potential parents’ “egocentric bias” when estimating their children’s happiness. These findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical and applied implications for research into child–parent relationships.