Parental sensitivity predicts parent-adolescent agreement about peer victimization

Effective parental responses to peer victimization may hinge on parental awareness of youths' peer victimization experiences, yet predictors of parental awareness are understudied. We investigated the extent of parent-adolescent agreement about early adolescents' peer victimization experiences as well as predictors of parent-adolescent agreement. Participants included a diverse community sample of early adolescents (N = 80; M_age = 12.36 years, SD = 1.33; 55% Black, 42.5% White, 2.5% other race/ethnicity) and their parents. Observer-rated parental sensitivity and adolescent-reported parental warmth were examined as predictors of parent-adolescent agreement about peer victimization. Following contemporary analytic procedures for examining informant agreement and discrepancies, polynomial regression analyses revealed that parental sensitivity moderated the association between parent and early adolescent reports of peer victimization, such that the association between parent and early adolescent reports of peer victimization was stronger at higher levels of parental sensitivity than lower levels of parental sensitivity. These results provide insight into how to enhance parental awareness of peer victimization. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).