Child internalizing problems and mother-child discrepancies in perceptions of parenting: Evidence for bidirectional associations

Abstract

We investigated the bidirectional associations between mother–child discrepancies in their perceptions of maternal rejection and children’s internalizing problems over 10 years from pre/early adolescence to early adulthood. Mothers’ reports of rejection and involvement in the parent–child relationship, the children’s perception of the mother’s rejection, and children’s self-report of internalizing problems were collected from a sample of 360 low-income ethnically diverse urban mother–child dyads at three time points (T1, T2, and T3) with 5-year intervals. Children were on average 12.6 years old at T1 (54% girls). Using a series of nested path analyses, we found that mother–child discrepancies while reporting maternal rejection at T1 were predictive of lower ratings of maternal involvement at T2 (β = −.14), which predicted higher levels of internalizing problems at T3 (β = −.16). The presence of mother’s affective disorder was related to T1 mother–child discrepancies (β = .14). Regarding bidirectional associations, children’s internalizing problems predicted maternal involvement across all time points, whereas T2 maternal involvement predicted T3 child internalizing problems. Discrepancies showed small associations with child internalizing problems both concurrently and over time. The findings highlight the importance of early discrepancies in the perception of maternal rejection for child internalizing symptoms.

Description

Keywords

Maternal rejection, Low-income

Citation

Copyright 2018 Journal of Family Psychology. This is a post-print version of a published paper that is available at: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-14802-007. Recommended citation: Hein, Sascha, Logan Stone, Mei Tan, Baptiste Barbot, Suniya S. Luthar, and Elena L. Grigorenko. "Child internalizing problems and mother-child discrepancies in maternal rejection: Evidence for bidirectional associations." Journal of Family Psychology 32, no. 2 (2018): 229. doi: 10.1037/fam0000358. This item has been deposited in accordance with the publisher copyright and licensing terms and with the author's permission.