Predicting attributional accuracy in mother–adolescent conflictual discussions.

Abstract

Attributional accuracy focuses on the extent to which one person accurately judges the reasons that another person acts the way they do. Research has shown that relationship quality, individual factors, and the overall context of a discussion, all play a role in the accuracy of attributions within adult relationships. However, little research has examined these patterns for parents and adolescents. Within the parent-adolescent literature, research on informant discrepancies has found agreement between family members' reports can highlight the overall functioning of the parent-child relationship but has not focused on perceptions of motives. This study assessed mothers' and adolescents' attributional accuracy during conflictual discussions and the extent to which such accuracy was associated with their relationship quality and individual perspective-taking abilities. One hundred twenty-three mother (M Age = 43) and adolescent (M Age = 14, 54% female, 52% White) dyads participated in a discussion about an issue commonly causing adolescent guilt and rated their own and their partner's motives during the discussion. They also self-reported on their relationship and perspective-taking abilities. Results showed that mothers and teens reported overall more positive discussion motives, when their relationship was better. There was also moderate agreement between mothers' and adolescents' attributed motives and their partners' self-reported motives. Adolescents' accuracy regarding both positive and negative maternal motives improved with better perspectivetaking. Mothers' accuracy improved with better relationship quality, but only regarding negative adolescent motives. This study highlights individual factors may be more relevant for adolescent attributional accuracy whereas relational factors may be more relevant for mothers' accuracy.