Adolescent-Parent College Aspiration Discrepancies and Changes in Depressive Symptoms

There is a growing interest in identifying stressors affecting adolescents and the conditions under which they compromise well-being. This study uses Waves I and II of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to investigate discrepancies between adolescents’ college aspirations and the aspirations they perceive their parents to have for them, and their impact on changes over time in depressive symptoms. Findings from generalized estimating equation (GEE) linear regression analyses suggest that, with one exception, college aspiration discrepancies with either parent predict increases in adolescents’ depressive symptoms, but the degree of change varies by direction of discrepancy and by the parent implicated in the discrepancy. Discrepancies indicating that adolescents perceive their parents to have higher college aspirations for them than they have for themselves and discrepancies involving fathers are particularly influential in predicting depressive symptoms. Implications for adolescent educational attainment and future theory and research are discussed.