Adolescents' and parents' affect in relation to discrepant perceptions of parental warmth in daily life

Abstract

The current study aimed to evaluate how adolescents' and parents' perceptions of daily parenting—and their discrepancies—relate to daily parent and adolescent affect. Daily parental warmth and affect were assessed using electronic diaries in 150 American adolescent–parent dyads (61.3% females, Mage = 14.6, 83.3% White; 95.3% mothers, Mage = 43.4; 89.3% White) and in 80 Dutch adolescents with 79 mothers and 72 fathers (63.8% females, Mage = 15.9, 91.3% White; Mage = 49.0, 97.4% White). Results of preregistered models indicated that individuals' affect may be more important for perceptions of parenting than discrepancies between parent–adolescent reports of parenting for affect, stressing the need to be aware of this influence of affect on parenting reports in clinical and research settings.