Parent-adolescent Congruence and Discrepancy in Perceived Parental Emotion Socialization to Anger and Sadness: Using Response Surface Analysis to Examine the Links with Adolescent Depressive Symptoms

Parents and adolescents often hold discrepant perceptions of parental emotion socialization, which reflect misunderstandings in parent-adolescent communication on emotions and have potential detrimental effects on mental health of adolescents. The present study investigated the associations between parent-adolescent congruence and discrepancy in parental emotion socialization perception to two specific negative emotions (anger and sadness) and depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents. A total of 372 adolescents (48.4% female, Mage = 13.43, SDage = 0.49) and their parents (79.6% mother, Mage = 41.15, SDage = 5.46) participated in this study. Both parents and adolescents reported perceived parental emotion socialization to anger and sadness, and adolescents reported depressive symptoms. Data were analyzed using polynomial regression and response surface analyses. Both congruence and discrepancy in parent and adolescent's reports were associated with adolescent depressive symptoms. A higher level of adolescent depressive symptoms was associated with higher parent-adolescent congruence in supportive responses to anger, sadness, and nonsupportive responses to anger. A higher level of depressive symptoms was associated with inconsistent reporting of supportive responses to sadness and nonsupportive responses to anger (only when parents had a more positive view than adolescents). This study highlights the significance of evaluating parent-child communication process by assessing perceived emotion socialization from both parents and adolescents and analyzing the reporting congruence and discrepancy. It also suggests that enhancing effective communication regarding parental emotion socialization could be a promising target for adolescent mental health promotion programs.

Voting for a personality: Do first impressions and self-evaluations affect voting decisions?

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People rated themselves and video clips of politicians on personality.

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People gave an estimate of the probability that they would vote for the politicians.

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Ratings of some personality traits were strongly related to voting behavior.

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For the preferred personality traits people gave themselves higher ratings.

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People’s voting decisions may be guided by traits they value high in themselves.

Participants were asked to assess their own personality (i.e. Big Five scales), the personality of politicians shown in brief silent video clips, and the probability that they would vote for these politicians. Response surface analyses (RSA) revealed noteworthy effects of self-ratings and observer-ratings of openness, agreeableness, and emotional stability on voting probability. Furthermore, the participants perceived themselves as being more open, more agreeable, more emotionally stable, and more extraverted than the average politician. The study supports previous findings that first impressions affect decision making on important issues. Results also indicate that when only nonverbal information is available people prefer political candidates they perceive as having personality traits they value in themselves.