Coming closer in adolescence: Convergence in mother, father, and adolescent reports of parenting

Abstract

Parenting changes in adolescence. Furthermore, parents and adolescents perceive parenting differently. We aimed at examining the development of parenting during adolescence and how perceptions of mothers, fathers, and adolescents might converge. Following 497 adolescents, their mothers, and fathers, across 6 Waves (ages 13-18) we investigated the development of parental support and behavioral control using mother and father selfreports, and adolescent reports for mothers and fathers. This multiinformant study sheds light on the development of parent-adolescent convergence on perceptions of parenting. We found curvilinear decrease for support and control. Parent-adolescent convergence emerged over the 6 years: those with higher intercepts had a steeper decrease , whereas correlations among parent and adolescent reports increased. Therefore, perceptions of parenting became similar during adolescence.