Parent–child discrepancies and family functioning: A longitudinal investigation of parental warmth and child internalizing problems.

= 5.26) over seven annual waves from the third to ninth grade. Random intercept cross-lagged panel models were employed to explore within-family cross-lagged effects. The results demonstrated only some temporal within-family cross-lagged effects, where parent-child discrepancies in parental warmth predicted discrepancies in child internalizing problems, particularly for students in Grades 6-9. Notably, the between-level effects were especially pronounced, as stable differences between families explained these linkages; families that experienced greater discrepancies in perceived child internalizing problems also exhibited larger discrepancies in parental warmth. The study underscores the importance of understanding both between-family characteristics and within-family dynamics. The findings suggest that discrepancies reveal a dysfunctionality more prominently at the between-family level rather than at the within-family level. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).