Parent-Adolescent Discrepancies in Family Intimacy and Adolescent Loneliness and Aggression: A Response Surface Analysis

doi:10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.202304014

Abstract

Abstract: During the stressful adolescent period, family intimacy is a particularly critical factor that is worth investigaing. To strengthen the cogency and validity cross studies, researchers tend to collect data from both parents and adolescents. However, informants often differ in their reports, either in family environments or adolescents' developmental outcomes, which are traditionally regarded as measurement errors. However, recent research has suggested that such informant discrepancy is meaningful in adolescent development, as it is a valuable indicator of family relationship, and reveals potential differences in world views and communication problems.
From this perspective, some studies have dug into informant discrepancies in family intimacy, yet the literature is insufficient and results were inconsistent. Moreover, researchers often adopted the difference-score method, predicting developmental outcomes with the absolute difference between parental and adolescents' assessments. However, this method is statistically redundant, and does not take into consideration the direction of difference. To overcome these issues, researchers recommend the use of polynomial regression, which provides a more detailed analysis of the effect of informant discrepancies. Further, response surface analysis could help to visualize the relations among parental report, adolescent report, and outcome variables, giving a vivid illustration on the linearity and direction of their relationship. Thus, this study examined the informant discrepancy between parents and adolescents, and further explored the link between such discrepancy and adolescent problem behaviors.
The current study aimed to examine the existence of informant (in)congruence in family intimacy under Chinese Culture, and further investigate the relationship between parental-adolescent (in)congruence in family intimacy and adolescent loneliness and aggression. We recruited 1136 intact Chinese families with children attending elementary school or middle high school, who answered questionnaires, including the family functioning scale, the trait aggression scale, and the loneliness scale. Then polynomial regression and response surface analysis were conducted to detect (in)congruence in reports of family intimacy between parents and adolescents, and its linkage to adolescents' loneliness and aggression. Besides, we separated male and female subsamples in our analysis to explore potential gender differences in the relations among family intimacy and loneliness and aggression.
The results indicated that: (1) Parents and adolescents differed in their reports of family intimacy, and parents tended to have higher levels of family intimacy. (2) Parent-adolescent congruence in family intimacy was negatively linked to adolescent loneliness and aggression, both for girls and boys. (3) Parent-adolescent incongruence in family intimacy was linked to adolescent loneliness and aggression, and the relations differed in adolescent girls and boys. With incongruence between adolescents and parents, adolescents' report was more strongly related to aggression, especially for boys. Specifically, higher levels of family intimacy were associated with boys' low levels of aggression only when reported by boys(rather than parents). But when reported by parents or girls, higher family intimacy had a protective value.
This study reveals the existence of parent-adolescent (in)congruence in family intimacy and its relation to adolescent development in mainland Chinese families. It implies the significance of adolescents' views and feelings to their development, which sometimes are even more influential than parents' perceptions. Thus, practically speaking, interventions should pay more attention to adolescents themselves. Also, as research on parent-child (in)congruence has profound meanings on adolescents' clinical and developmental research, further investigation is needed.

Key words: parent-adolescent discrepancies, family intimacy, loneliness, aggression, adolescent

摘要： 本研究以1136个家庭的父母和青少年为被试,探讨家庭亲密性的亲子感知差异与青少年社会适应的关系。结果表明：（1）父母比青少年感知的家庭亲密性更高。（2）亲子感知一致时,家庭亲密性显著负向预测青少年的孤独感与攻击行为。（3）亲子感知不一致时具有性别效应：自身感知的家庭亲密性与男生孤独感、攻击行为呈负向关联;父母和自身感知的家庭亲密性对女生的攻击行为具有保护作用,但自身感知对孤独感保护作用更强。

关键词: 亲子感知差异, 家庭亲密性, 孤独感, 攻击行为, 青少年

Chen Fumei, ZhaoYunyan, Luo Rui, He Ran, Luo Yuhan. Parent-Adolescent Discrepancies in Family Intimacy and Adolescent Loneliness and Aggression: A Response Surface Analysis[J]. Journal of Psychological Science, 2023, 46(4): 873-880.

陈福美, 赵云燕, 罗芮, 何然, 罗玉晗. 父母-青少年对家庭亲密性的感知差异及其对青少年孤独感与攻击行为的影响：基于RSA模型的分析^*[J]. 心理科学, 2023, 46(4): 873-880.

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