A longitudinal study of Hong Kong adolescents' and parents' perceptions of family functioning and well-being
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Updated: Oct 26, 2026

Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure
Published on: September 19, 2019
1Department of Social Work, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong. danielshek@cuhk.edu.hk
Abstract:
In this longitudinal study, the relationships between Hong Kong Chinese adolescents' and parents' discrepancies in their perceptions of family functioning and adolescents' psychological well-being were investigated via adolescents' and parents' reports of family functioning (N = 378 families). Results showed that discrepancies in perceptions of family functioning between adolescents and parents were related to adolescents' feelings of hopelessness, life satisfaction, self-esteem, purpose in life, and general psychiatric morbidity at Time 1 and Time 2. Longitudinal and prospective analyses (Time 1 predictors predicting Time 2 criterion variables) suggested that the relationship between discrepancies in perceptions of family functioning and adolescents' psychological well-being are bidirectional. Adolescent-father and adolescent-mother discrepancies had similar effects on adolescents' psychological well-being. The negative impact of discrepancies among family members in perceptions of family functioning on adolescents' psychological well-being was greater for adolescent girls than for adolescent boys.
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