Abstract
Our study examined variations in adolescent adjustment as a function of maternal and paternal parenting styles. Participants included 272 students in grades 9 and 11 from a public high school in a metropolitan area of the Northeastern US. Participants completed measures of maternal and paternal parenting styles and indices of psychological adjustment. Authoritative mothering was found to relate to higher self-esteem and life-satisfaction and to lower depression. Paternal parenting styles was also related to psychological adjustment, however, although the advantage of authoritative mothering over permissive mothering was evident for all outcomes assessed, for paternal styles the advantage was less defined and only evident for depression. Our study highlights the importance of examining process-oriented agents as part of the broader interest in well-being variations in adolescents.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Andresen, E. M., Malmgren, J. A., Carter, W. B., & Patrick, D. L. (1994). Screening for depression in well older adults: evaluation of a short form of the CES-D (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale). American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 10, 77–84.
Baumrind, D. (1971). Current patterns of parental authority. Developmental Psychology Monographs, 4(Part 1).
Campbell, A., Converse, P. E., & Rodgers, W. L. (1976). The quality of American life. New York: Russell Sage.
Durbin, D. L., Darling, N., Steinberg, L., & Brown, B. B. (1993). Parenting style and peer group membership among European-American adolescents. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 3, 87–100.
Fletcher, A., Darling, N., Dornbusch, S., & Steinberg, L. (1995).The company they keep; Relation of adolescents’ adjustment and behavior to their friends’ perceptions of authoritative parenting in the social network. Developmental Psychology, 31, 300–310.
Gfroerer, K., Kern, R., & Curlette, W. (2004). Research support for individual psychology’s parenting model. Journal of Individual Psychology, 61, 379–388.
Glasgow, K. L., Dornbusch, S. M., Troyer, L., Steinberg, L., & Ritter, P. L. (1997). Parenting styles, adolescents’ attributions, and educational outcomes in nine heterogeneous high schools. Child Development, 68, 507–529.
Gonzalez, A., Holbein, M., & Quilter, S. (2002). High school students’ goal orientations and their relationship to perceived parenting styles. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 27, 450–471.
Karavasilis, L., Doyle, A., & Markiewicz, D. (2003). Associations between parenting style and attachment to mother in middle childhood and adolescence. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 27, 153–164.
Kauffman, D., Gaston, E., Santa Lucia, R., Salcedo, O., Rendina-Gobioff, G., & Gadd, R. (2000). The relationship between parenting style and children’s adjustment: The parents’ perspective. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 9, 231–245.
Lamb, M. E. (1986). The father’s role: Applied perspectives. New York: Wiley.
Lamborn, S., Mounts, N., Steinberg, L., & Dornbusch, S. (1991). Patterns of competence and adjustment among adolescents from authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, and neglectful families. Child Development, 62, 1049–1066.
Levitt, M. J., Guacci-Franco, N., & Levitt, J. L. (1993). Convoys of social support in children and early adolescence: Structure and function. Developmental Psychology, 29, 811–818.
Levitt, M. J., Guacci-Franco, N., & Levitt, J. L. (1994). Social support and achievement in childhood and early adolescence: A multicultural study. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 15, 207–222.
Maccoby, E. E., & Martin, J. A. (1983). Socialization in the context of the family: Parent- child interaction. In P. H. Mussen (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology (4th Ed., Vol. 4, pp. 1–101). New York: Wiley.
Magnusson, D. (1998). The logic and implications of a person approach. In R. B. Cairns, L. R. Bergman, & J. Kagan (Eds.), Methods and models for studying the individual (pp. 33–63). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Magnusson, D., & Stattin, H. (1998). Person-context interaction theories. In R. M. Lerner (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology. Theoretical models of human development (Vol. 1, pp. 685–760). New York: Wiley.
McHale, S. M., Updegraff, K. A., Tucker, C. J., Crouter, A. (2000). Step in or stay out? Parents’ roles in adolescent siblings’ relationships. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 746–761.
Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385–401.
Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Steinberg, L., Lamborn, S., Darling, N., Mounts, N., & Dornbusch, S. (1994). Over-time changes in adjustment and competence among adolescents from authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, and neglectful families. Child Development, 65, 754–770.
Weiss, L., & Schwarz, J. C. (1996). The relationship between parenting types and older adolescents’ personality, adjustment, academic achievement, and substance abuse. Child Development, 67, 2101–2114.
Acknowledgments
Portions of this paper were presented at the meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Boston, March 2005. The research was conducted while the first author was an assistant professor of psychology at Kutztown University. The authors would like to thank Moshe Machlev, Melissa Leh, Ann Marie Kolb, Keri Spedding, Dan Zebrowski, Brad Christ, and Carole Walker for their assistance with data collection.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Milevsky, A., Schlechter, M., Netter, S. et al. Maternal and Paternal Parenting Styles in Adolescents: Associations with Self-Esteem, Depression and Life-Satisfaction. J Child Fam Stud 16, 39–47 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-006-9066-5
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-006-9066-5