Divergence Between Adolescent and Parental Perceptions of Conflict in Relationship to Adolescent Empathy Development

Abstract

Adolescents' developing empathy may be associated with the frequency of conflict with parents, as well as the level of agreement between adolescent and parental perceptions of the frequency of such conflicts. This 6-year longitudinal study investigated the link between adolescent empathy development and perceptions of the frequency of parent-child conflict, as reported by 467 adolescents (43% female, from age 13) and both parents. First, we investigated heterogeneity in empathy development by identifying classes of individuals with similar developmental trajectories. Adolescents were categorized into high-, average-, and low-empathy classes. Initial differences between these classes further increased from age 13 to 16, particularly for cognitive empathy. To assess the association between empathy and the frequency of conflict, we compared these empathy classes in terms of initial levels and over-time changes in the frequency of adolescent- and parent-reported conflict. Compared to the average- and high-empathy classes, the low-empathy class evidenced elevated conflict throughout adolescence. Furthermore, the low- and average-empathy classes demonstrated temporary divergence between adolescent- and parent-reported conflict from early- to mid-adolescence, with adolescents underreporting conflict compared to both parents. Adolescents' agreement with parents was moderated by empathy class, while parents were always in agreement with one another. This may suggest that these discrepancies are related to distortions in adolescents' perceptions, as opposed to biased parental reports. These findings highlight the potential importance of early detection and intervention in empathy deficiencies, and suggest that lower adolescent empathy may indicate elevated family conflict, even if a failure to consider parents' perspective leads adolescents to underreport it.

Coming Closer in Adolescence: Convergence in Mother, Father, and Adolescent Reports of Parenting

“…Moreover, few studies in this field have been longitudinal. A study that used the same methodology as this study only found temporary changes in parent–adolescent divergent views of conflict (Van Lissa et al., ). Therefore, this study adds to this body of research, using a longer time frame spanning adolescence, as well as a combination of methods to detect divergence (latent means comparisons and change in correlations with age).…”

“…To investigate reporter differences, we then computed a series of Wald tests to test for differences in means of the intercepts and slopes among the dyads (adolescent vs. father, adolescent vs. mother, father vs. mother), a technique that has been applied by Van Lissa et al. (). Again, a multiple group approach was used to test for gender differences.…”

“…To answer the research question regarding convergence in the development of parental support and behavioral control between pairs of informants, we ran a series of multivariate LGMs (eight models in total) in which the growth of parental support and behavioral control was modeled for each pair (e.g., the LGM of the adolescent-mother report of control was modeled together with the mother-adolescent report of control). To investigate reporter differences, we then computed a series of Wald tests to test for differences in means of the intercepts and slopes among the dyads (adolescent vs. father, adolescent vs. mother, father vs. mother), a technique that has been applied by Van Lissa et al (2015). Again, a multiple group approach was used to test for gender differences.…”

TEAMwork: Testing Emotional Attunement and Mutuality During Parent-Adolescent fMRI

“…Our findings therefore indicate that parents with more empathic brain responses to their child's error, as evidenced by vmPFC activation, also engage in more positive parenting behaviors in daily life as reported by their child. Much of the past research on empathy and parenting has been related to the child's development of empathy rather than parental empathy (e.g., Yoo et al, 2013;Van Lissa et al, 2015). The current study adds to this literature by highlighting the importance of parental empathy and its underlying neurobiology for positive parenting behaviors, which likely impact adolescent mental health (Tabak and Zawadzka, 2017).…”

Adolescents’ Self-Perception of Morality, Competence, and Sociability and their Interplay with Quality of Family, Friend, and School Relationships: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study

“…For instance, what does happen when personal and others' ratings of an adolescent's morality, competence, and sociability are highly divergent (e.g., an individual's perception of his/her own high level of morality is not confirmed by another person)? This is an important future direction of research, as divergence in perceptions may be due to various factors, such as differences in empathy (Van Lissa et al 2014) and can have important psychosocial consequences (e.g., decreasing adjustment; Zimmer-Gembeck et al 2007). Thus, it is worth investigating how divergence in rating these dimensions influences interpersonal and intergroup interactions.…”