Although parent-child discrepancies in reports of parenting are known to be associated with child depressive symptoms, the direction of causality is unknown. To address this knowledge gap, this study contributes to existing literature by examining longitudinal within-family linkages between parent-child discrepancies in their reports on autonomy support and depressive symptoms of children, while also assessing these linkages with parents’ depressive symptoms. In addition, this study explored whether these linkages differ for father- versus mother-child discrepancies. Longitudinal data (six annual waves) of 497 adolescents (56.9% boys, M_age at T₁ = 13.03, SD = 0.46), their mothers (N = 495), and their fathers (N = 446) of the Dutch study Research on Adolescent Development and Relationships (RADAR) were used. Counter to expectations, the results of a Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model provided no evidence for within-family cross-lagged effects. Instead, stable differences between families explained linkages; in families where children reported on average higher levels of depressive symptoms, children also reported lower levels of autonomy support relative to their parents. There were no associations between parent-child discrepancies and parents’ depressive symptoms. Thus, the findings suggest that depressive symptoms are neither a consequence, nor a predictor of parent-child discrepancies in adolescence. The hypotheses and analytical plan of this study were preregistered in a project on the Open Science Framework.

尽管已知育儿报告中的亲子差异与儿童抑郁症状有关，但因果关系的方向尚不清楚。为了解决这一知识差距，本研究通过检查亲子报告中关于自主支持和儿童抑郁症状的差异之间的纵向家庭内部联系，同时还评估了这些与父母抑郁症状的联系，从而对现有文献做出了贡献。此外，本研究还探讨了这些联系是否因父子差异和母子差异而不同。497 名青少年（56.9% 男孩，T _1时的M_年龄 = 13.03，SD  = 0.46）、他们的母亲（N  = 495）和他们的父亲（ 使用了荷兰青少年发展与关系研究 (RADAR) 的研究，N = 446)。与预期相反，随机截取交叉滞后面板模型的结果没有提供家族内交叉滞后效应的证据。相反，家庭之间的稳定差异解释了联系；在儿童平均报告抑郁症状水平较高的家庭中，儿童的自主支持水平也低于其父母。父母与子女的差异与父母的行为之间没有关联抑郁症状。因此，研究结果表明，抑郁症状既不是青春期亲子差异的结果，也不是其预测因素。本研究的假设和分析计划已预先注册在开放科学框架的一个项目中。