Family Communication Mediates the Relationship between Parent-Child Political Discordance and Psychological Distress

Abstract

<p>Studies on political differences focus primarily on the conflict between the two dominant opposing political camps (e.g., liberals versus conservatives). Those without an explicit leaning (also known as political neutrals) are understudied. Using Hong Kong as context, we demonstrate that <em>political neutrals</em> may serve as a meaningful and impactful third political camp, especially in the disagreement with pro- and anti-government camps.<br></p><p>Political discordance between young adults and their parents affects family and individual well-being. We examined a triadic approach to political discordance within families. We investigated different forms of parent-child political discordance among the three political camps. We examined its effect on mental health and the mediation effect of family communication.<br></p><p>We conducted an online survey in 2021 with 492 young adults and 94 parents with children aged 18-30 years. The political <em>neutrals</em> differed from the <em>yellows</em> (i.e., anti-government) and the <em>blues</em> (i.e., pro-government) in the degree of support of the government, police, and anti-government protestors (<em>p</em>s < .001). The main results using generalized linear models with post hoc comparisons and structural regression models showed that family communication mediated the negative effects of political discordance on psychological distress in (1) <em>neutral-versus-yellow</em> families (B = .12, SE = .05) and (2) <em>neutral-versus-blue</em> families (B = .16, SE = .07).<br></p><p><br></p><p>Beyond the <em>yellow-versus-blue</em> divide, the <em>neutrals</em> may constitute a third camp, which politically disagreed with family members from the <em>yellow</em> and the <em>blue</em> camps. We discussed the worsening of psychological distress and its underlying process in all forms of politically discordant families.</p>