Mother-Adolescent Consistency and Discrepancy in Perceived Maternal Psychological Control to Adolescent Depression: Exploring the Specificity of Adolescent Gender and Age.

Abstract

Existing research has predominantly relied on the perspective of a single informant to investigate the association between maternal psychological control and adolescent depressive symptoms, providing only limited insight into these complex dynamics. To provide a more nuanced understanding, the present study employed polynomial regression with response surface analysis (RSA) to investigate how mother-adolescent consistency and discrepancy in perceived maternal psychological control was associated with adolescent depressive symptoms, as well as the moderating roles of adolescent gender and age in these relationships. A total of 929 Chinese adolescents (463 girls, M_age = 12.56 years, SD_age = 1.91) and their mothers participated in the study. Mothers and adolescents reported maternal psychological control, and adolescents self-reported their levels of depressive symptoms. Results indicated that high maternal psychological control reported by both informants predicted higher levels of adolescent depressive symptoms. A higher level of maternal psychological control as perceived by adolescents, compared to their mothers' reports, was positively correlated with greater adolescent depressive symptoms. Notably, these discrepancy effects were most pronounced among middle adolescent girls, indicating developmental and gender-specific vulnerability. These findings highlight that adolescents' perceptions of maternal psychological control and the extent to which these perceptions diverge from mothers' views are critical markers of depression risk, highlighting the need for gender- and age-sensitive parenting interventions.