Dynamics of psychological control in mother–youth relationships: A Simpson’s paradox in family processes.

Most studies on psychological control (PC) in families assume that parents are the perpetrators, thus focusing on the effects of parental PC on youth's developmental outcomes. Youth might also perpetrate psychologically controlling behaviors toward their parents, however. There is currently limited understanding of the potential longitudinal relationships between parent- and youth-perpetrated PC behaviors. This dyadic longitudinal study examined the between- and within-family associations between mother- and youth-perpetrated PC. Late adolescents and emerging adults in Hong Kong (N = 349; MageT1 = 18.20, SD = 1.10; 39.8% male; 99.1% Chinese ethnicity) and their mothers (MageT1 = 49.10, SD = 4.82) completed four assessments over a full academic year. A random intercept cross-lagged panel model showed a positive link between youth- and mother-perpetrated PC at the between-family level. At the within-family level, however, greater youth-perpetrated PC predicted decreases in later mother-perpetrated PC, suggesting that when mothers perceived their children to be more psychologically controlling than usual, youth subsequently reported their mothers as being less psychologically controlling than usual. The opposing valences of the between- versus within-family associations indicate a Simpson's paradox, offering a novel interpretation of manipulative and coercive behaviors in families. This research also represents a departure from a traditional focus on parental perpetration of PC, suggesting that youth might use PC to acquire more power in family interactions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).