A longitudinal study of Hong Kong adolescents' and parents' perceptions offamily functioning and well-being

In this longitudinal study, the relationships between Hong Kong Chinese ado lescents' and parents' discrepancies in their perceptions of family functio ning and adolescents' psychological well-being were investigated via adoles cents' and parents' reports of family functioning (N = 378 families). Resul ts showed that discrepancies in perceptions of family functioning between a dolescents and parents were related to adolescents' feelings of hopelessnes s, life satisfaction, self-esteem, purpose in life, and general psychiatric morbidity at Time 1 and Time 2. Longitudinal and prospective analyses (Tim e 1 predictors predicting Time 2 criterion variables) suggested that the re lationship between discrepancies in perceptions of family functioning and a dolescents' psychological well-being are bidirectional. Adolescent-father a nd adolescent-mother discrepancies had similar effects on adolescents' psyc hological well-being. The negative impact of discrepancies among family mem bers in perceptions of family functioning on adolescents' psychological wel l-being was greater for adolescent girls than for adolescent boys.