Parent and child perceptions of indulgent parenting and female emerging adults’ depressive symptoms

ABSTRACT

Depression is among the most common mental health disorders reported, especially among female emerging adults. Due to the prevalence of depression, we investigated the perception of parenting behaviour (indulgent parenting) in the context of female emerging adult’s symptoms of depression. Specifically, research has suggested that parent–child discrepancies on perceptions of parenting behaviours provide implications for children’s mental health. We collected data from female college students and one of their parents (N = 128 dyads) to examine discrepancies in their reports of indulgent parenting and the association with female college students’ reports of depressive symptoms over three data points during a four-month period. Results indicated that female college students perceived greater levels of indulgent parenting compared to parents’ reports of their own indulgent parenting behaviour. Further, the disagreement between parent and child reports of indulgent parenting was associated with a slower decline in depressive symptoms among female college students. Implications of the study’s results are further discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Depression
• emerging adulthood
• indulgent parenting
• parent–child discrepancies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the National Council on Family Relations Innovation Grant Program to Ming Cui. Opinions, findings, conclusion or recommendations expressed within this work do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Council on Family Relations.