Closeness, Conflict, and Depression: Developmental Impacts of Parental-adolescent Perceptual (In)Congruence

Despite increasing evidence that discrepancies between parents' and adolescents' perceptions of their relationship contribute to adolescent depression, little is known about how these perceptual gaps evolve across developmental stages of adolescence and how they relate to depression at varying ages. This study addressed that gap by examining how perceptual (in)congruence in parent-adolescent closeness and conflict relates to depressive symptoms across early, middle, and late adolescence. A total of 1893 parent-adolescent dyads participated in this study, including 779 in the early adolescent group (adolescents: Mage = 9.86, SDage = 0.99, 48.8% female; parents: Mage = 38.08, SDage = 5.09, 76.6% mothers), 569 in the middle adolescent group (adolescents: Mage = 12.90, SDage = 0.97, 48.3% female; parents: Mage = 40.73, SDage = 5.22, 70% mothers), and 545 in the late adolescent group (adolescents: Mage = 15.46, SDage = 1.07, 53% female; parents: Mage = 42.66, SDage = 4.48, 69% mothers). Polynomial regression and response surface analyses indicated that adolescents' perceptions, particularly of conflict, were more strongly associated with depressive symptoms than were parents' perceptions. The effects of perceptual (in)congruence also varied by age. In early and middle adolescence, congruently low closeness or high conflict was linked to more severe symptoms, with the highest severity occurring when adolescents perceived the relationship more negatively than parents. In late adolescence, large perceptual gaps, again driven by adolescents' more negative views, were associated with marked increases in depressive symptoms. These findings highlight adolescents' conflict perceptions as the strongest factor related to depressive symptoms and identify late adolescence as the period of greatest vulnerability to perceptual incongruence.