Discrepancies in military middle-school adolescentsʹ and parentsʹ perceptions of family functioning, social support, anger frequency, and concerns

Previous literature suggests that adolescentsʹ and parentsʹ perceptions of family functioning are typically quite disparate and that perceptual discrepancies increase when a family is under stress. During the years of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan adolescents in military families have faced uniquely stressful circumstances which may exacerbate difficulties commonly experienced during adolescence. For this study 91 middle-school adolescent–parent dyads from U.S. Army families were surveyed about their perceptions of family functioning, social support, the adolescentʹs frequency of anger, and the adolescentʹs concerns. Findings indicated significant differences in parentsʹ and adolescentsʹ matched ratings for all variables except adolescent concerns. Adolescent–parent perceptual discrepancies were greatest for families who had never experienced deployment and during or following the first deployment. The results of this study may be useful to those supporting military families as they develop strategies to help family members understand the othersʹ perceptions and learn to communicate and solve problems despite the differences.