Apples and Oranges: Divergent Meanings of Parents’ and Adolescents’ Perceptions of Parental Influence

The past several decades have yielded a vast quantity of research demonstrating that the quality of parent-adolescent relationships is integrally linked to adolescents’ psychosocial functioning. Several authors have pointed out, however, that the majority of this research has relied on one person’s assessment of family relationships—whether the rater is the adolescent, a parent, or an outside observer (Jessop, 1981; Sweeting, 2001; Welsh, Galliher, & Powers, 1998). Furthermore, when reports are gathered from multiple family members, agreement between adolescents and their parents regarding the quality of their relationships has typically been quite low (Collins & Russell, 1991; Jessop, 1981). Although this lack of agreement has often been attributed to measurement error and/or regarded as a methodological nuisance (Feinberg, Howe, Reiss, & Hetherington, 2000; Paikoff, Carlton-Ford, & Brooks-Gunn, 1992), recently there has been a growing interest in examining how and when adolescents and parents diverge in their perceptions of family interactions. The current study examines the degree of parental influence over adolescents’ behaviors as one critical arena in which potentially different perceptions may have important implications for adolescents’ development. During early adolescence, the meaning underlying divergent parent versus adolescent perceptions of family processes may be especially important. The developmental transformations that occur during this stage likely result in changes in adolescents’ needs within the family (Holmbeck, Paikoff, & Brooks-Gunn, 1995). As young teens begin to struggle for more self-governance, they may be most likely to recognize parental influence when they feel positively toward their parents and respect their opinions. Thus, “My parents influence me” may translate to “I like my parents and care about what they have to say.” Similarly, the shift into adolescence may necessitate an adjustment in parents’ attitudes and/or behaviors toward their adolescent children (Collins, 1990; Holmbeck et al., 1995; Paikoff, 1991). However, because parents’ roles of maintaining authority and keeping adolescents safe are critical (Bengston & Kuypers, 1971; Jessop, 1981; Noller, 1994; Smetana, 1991; Welsh et al., 1998), their views of their children and understanding of their developmental needs often may be resistant to change (Holmbeck & O’Donnell, 1991), and they may be highly motivated to influence their adolescents to follow the rules they have established for them. Parents’ reports of high levels of influence may therefore reflect the degree to which they are actively focused on controlling their young teens: “I influence my adolescent” may translate to “I am in charge of my adolescent.” Consistent with this notion, discrepancies between parents’ and adolescents’ perceptions of family life appear to be most prevalent around topics that tap into adolescents’ needs for autonomy and individuation (Carlson, Cooper, & Spradling, 1991; Gecas & Schwalbe, 1986; Jessop, 1981, 1982; Noller & Callan, 1986; Paikoff et al., 1992). Although no study to date has directly examined potential discrepancies in parental influence per se, there is some suggestion that adolescents and parents do view the influence process differently. Adolescents are less likely than parents to report that a rule exists (Jessop, 1981, 1982), more likely to view certain topics as issues of personal choice versus subject to parents’ control (Smetana, 1988, 1991, 1995; Smetana & Berent, 1993), and more likely to report dissatisfaction with their families’ abilities to change roles and rules (Noller & Callan, 1986). Thus, although there is some evidence that discrepant perceptions regarding parental influence may exist, the meaning of such discrepancies is not yet clear. Adolescents may well feel the greatest levels of parental influence not when parents are overtly trying to control them but rather when the parent-teen relationship is strong. Similarly, parents may feel most influential when they are highly focused on controlling their adolescents’ behaviors. To the extent that adolescents’ reports of influence may reflect warmth and support and parents’ reports of influence may reflect (possibly excessive) concern over control, each viewpoint likely captures divergent aspects of the developing autonomy and relatedness processes within the parent-adolescent relationship. As such, they may be differentially related to a number of different outcomes for teens, including functioning within their close relationships. Past research has suggested that autonomy inhibition is linked to a range of other components of the parent-adolescent relationship, such as less parent-teen involvement, poorer communication, less positive affective expression, and increased parent-adolescent conflict and hostility (Allen, Hauser, O’Connor, Bell, & Eickholt, 1996; Bulcroft, 1991; Collins, 1990; Smetana, 1995; Smetana & Berent, 1993). Although peer relationship outcomes have not been studied as extensively, similar patterns have been found: Autonomy promotion (on the part of either the parent or the adolescent) within the parent-adolescent relationship has been linked to increased interpersonal competence and more intimate friendships (Allen, Bell, & Boykin, 2000; Hall, 2002; McElhaney, 2000; McElhaney & Allen, 2001), whereas undermining of autonomy has been linked to decreased interpersonal competence, greater amounts of hostility in relationships with peers, and increasingly distant peer relationships (Allen et al., 2000; Allen & Hauser, 1993; Allen, Hauser, O’Connor, & Bell, 2002; Marsh & McFarland, 2002; McElhaney, 2000; Tencer, Meyer, & Hall, 2003). This pattern of findings indicates that inhibition of autonomy is problematic in terms of developmental outcomes both within the family and within the peer group. Past research has typically relied on an examination of difference scores to look at the question of divergent perceptions, with the inherent assumption that the difference between parents’ and adolescents’ viewpoints is quantitative (seeing more or less of the same construct) rather than qualitative (interpreting the same construct differently). The current study proposes that adolescents’ and parents’ perceptions should be considered as each offering a unique vantage point on the meaning of family interactions (Bell, Rychener, & Munsch, 2001; Carlton-Ford, Paikoff, & Brooks-Gunn, 1991; Holmbeck & O’Donnell, 1991; Schwarz, Barton-Henry, & Pruzinsky, 1985). This approach is particularly important given research demonstrating that parents and adolescents do interpret key family processes in qualitatively different ways (e.g., Smetana, 1988, 1991, 1995; Smetana & Berent, 1993). Thus, the current multimethod, multireporter study assesses differing parental and adolescent perceptions of parental influence processes by examining the main effects of each viewpoint on both parent-adolescent relationship quality and adolescents’ functioning with peers. Given our proposition that parents and adolescents have different viewpoints when it comes to parental influence, we hypothesized that (a) parents’ and adolescents’ perceptions of influence will not be strongly correlated. To further explain this divergence between parents’ and adolescents’ perceptions of influence, we hypothesized that (b) parents’ perceptions will be linked to their focus on controlling their adolescents’ behavior (and thus significantly correlated with reports of parental control), whereas adolescents’ perceptions will be more closely linked with their feelings of closeness with their parents (and thus significantly correlated with reports of parental support). Finally, we expected that if parents and adolescents are truly viewing parental influence through two difference lenses, then the links between their respective reports of influence ought to also differentially predict outcomes. We hypothesized that (c) parents’ reports of influence will predict diminished autonomy functioning as observed not only within the mother- and father-adolescent relationships but also within adolescents’ relationships with their friends. Furthermore, we proposed that (d) parents’ reports of influence will also be linked to fewer expressions of support and relatedness within adolescents’ close relationships, whereas (e) adolescents’ reports of parental influence will be linked to higher levels of observed support and relatedness within these relationships (mother-teen, father-teen, and teen-friend).