We examined mothers', adolescents', and observers' discrepancies in perceptions of family interaction guided by two approaches to discrepancies: divergent realities approach, which explores discrepancies in different peoples'perceptions of the samefamily member's interaction, and perceived inequality approach, which focuses on one individual's perception of discrepancies between family members' interaction. We used a video-recallprocedure to assess the videotaped conversations of 79 rural, working-class families. Results using the divergent realities approach support a developmental life-span perspective that posits that adolescents and mothers have different developmental tasks, which result in their viewing their behaviors with each other through different lenses. Adolescents viewedfamily interactions as more conflictual andperceived greater inequalities between themselves and their mothers. These discrepancies may contribute to the transformation toward more symmetrical and individuated parent-child relationships. Results using the perceived inequalities approach revealed that discrepancies between adolescents and their mothers were associated with adolescents' internalizing and externalizing symptoms.
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