NCJ Number
214882
Journal
Journal of Adolescence Volume: 29 Issue: 3 Dated: June 2006 Pages: 419-436
Date Published
June 2006
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This longitudinal Dutch study examined links between parenting styles (supportive or overcontrolling) and their early-adolescent children's "externalizing" problem behavior (delinquency and aggression) and "internalizing" problem behavior (anxiety, depression, withdrawal, and physical complaints).
Abstract
When children perceived little parental involvement in their lives and greater freedom to make their own decisions without parental involvement, they were at greater risk of delinquent and aggressive behavior. On the other hand, children who perceived their parents as over-involved in their lives and decisions were at greater risk for internal problems (anxiety, depression, withdrawal, and physical complaints). Higher levels of perceived parental strictness led to an increase of internalizing problems over a 1-year period. This finding supports the view that overly strict parenting is detrimental during adolescence, when psychosocial development requires greater independence from parental control; however, when externalizing problem behavior is already high, allowing an adolescent greater autonomy in decisionmaking is most likely to increase the problem behaviors. At the beginning of the study (Time 1) the sample consisted of 650 adolescents between 12 and 15 years old who attended 1 of 3 public secondary schools in The Netherlands (eighth grade). The sample completed the Youth Self-Report and questionnaires about parenting at Time 1 and after a 1-year interval (Time 2), when 563 of the original sample completed the questionnaires. The sample consisted of mostly middle-class Dutch adolescents, with the distribution of boys and girls being about equal for both Times 1 and 2. 4 tables, 2 figures, and 71 references