Are parents as great as they think they are? A longitudinal study of parent–child perceived parenting discrepancies on adolescent depressive symptoms in U.S. families of Chinese origin

A developmental perspective is needed to reveal the long-lasting influence of perceived parenting discrepancies on youth depressive symptoms from early adolescence to emerging adulthood. This is particularly important for U.S. families of Chinese origin, an understudied U.S. population in research on perceived parenting discrepancies. The current study used an 8-year longitudinal dataset of 444 youth (M_wave1.age = 13.51, SD = 0.64; 54% girls) and their mothers (N = 393) and fathers (N = 374) from U.S. families of Chinese origin to examine how convergent and divergent perceptions of parenting in early adolescence relate to depressive symptoms in emerging adulthood (M_wave3.age = 21.39, SD = 0.62). Response surface analysis revealed that when mothers, but not fathers, reported lower (versus higher) levels of hostility than adolescents in early adolescence, youth reported higher levels of depressive symptoms in emerging adulthood. The finding highlights the need for early adolescent interventions to address parent-child perceived parenting discrepancies when mothers reported less hostility than adolescents, given their lasting impact on youth depressive symptoms in U.S. families of Chinese origin.