Interparental (In)Congruence in Parenting and Adolescent Mental Health: The Use of Polynomial Regression and Response Surface Analysis

Although parenting is a well-established factor contributing to adolescent adjustment, limited research has examined discrepancies in parenting practices between mothers and fathers. To address this gap, the present study investigated the association between interparental (in)congruence in parenting, particularly parental psychological control (PC) and autonomy support (AS), and adolescent mental health, as indicated by flourishing and affective distress. The study also examined the moderating role of parent–child relationship quality and differences between parents and adolescents as informants of parenting. Based on a sample of 2,356 Chinese adolescents ( M age = 14.06, SD = 1.63, 54.8% girls) and their parents, we used polynomial regression with response surface analysis to capture the congruence and incongruence effects of parental PC and AS. As expected, interparental congruent higher PC was associated with lower flourishing and higher affective distress, whereas congruent higher AS was associated with better mental health. Meanwhile, incongruence in PC was associated with lower flourishing when maternal PC exceeded paternal PC, and with higher affective distress regardless of the direction of incongruence. Similarly, incongruent AS was also associated with higher affective distress. In addition, mother–child relationship quality buffered the adverse association between incongruent PC and affective distress, and a higher-quality father–child relationship boosted adolescent flourishing even when at low AS levels. Notably, these effects were numerically larger when adolescents rather than parents reported parenting. Together, these findings suggest that interparental discrepancies in parenting are associated with poorer adolescent mental health, highlighting the need for future research to examine the potential underlying mechanisms, such as the role of broader family processes.