NCJ Number
209616
Journal
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 34 Issue: 2 Dated: April 2005 Pages: 97-110
Date Published
April 2005
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This study examined the role of parental psychological control, warmth and behavioral control, marital conflict, and attachment security in the adjustment of young adolescents across a 2-year period.
Abstract
Research has established that parenting practices have a significant influence on adolescent adjustment. In this study the influence of parental psychological control, and two other common dimensions of parenting, warmth and behavioral control, in the development of internalizing and externalizing problems during early adolescence were examined. In addition, the dimensions of marital conflict and attachment style (anxiety and avoidance) were examined in the adjustment from early to middle adolescence. The study included 175 adolescents, of which 110 were girls, who had participated in the first of a 3-year longitudinal study of family factors and adolescent adjustment. The study found that parenting, including psychological control, and attachment security had important implications for both the level of adjustment and changes in adjustment over time. In analyzing direction of effect, it was confirmed that parenting and attachment affect adolescent adjustment more than the reverse. Marital conflict was associated with level of maladjustment which was meditated by parenting. The study substantiates the importance of psychological control as a risk factor for the adjustment of young adolescents over time, in particular for the exacerbation of internalizing problems. References