Parenting Style and Adolescent Adjustment

In order to test Maccoby and Martin's (1983) revision of Baumrind's (1967) conceptual framework, the families of approximately 4,100 14to 18-year-olds were classified into one of four groups (authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, or neglectful) on the basis of the adolescents' ratings of their parents on two dimensions: acceptance/involvement and firm control. The youngsters were then contrasted along four sots of outcomes: psychcsocial development, school achievement, internalized distress, and problem behavior. Results indicate that adolescents raised in authoritative homes score highest on measures of psychosocial competence and lowest on measures of psychological and behavioral dysfunction; the reverse is true for adolescents raised in neglectful homes. Adolescents raised in authoritarian homes score reasonably well on measures indexing obedience and conformity to the standards of adults but have relatively poorer self-conceptions than other youngsters. In contrast, adolescents from indulgent homes evidence a strong sense of self-confidence, but report a higher frequency of substance abuse and school misconduct and are less engaged in school. The findings suggest that Maccoby and Martin's four-fold classification scheme provides a workable empirical framework for those interested in the study of adolescent socialization. More important, the results indicate the need to distinguish between two types of "rermissive" families: those that are indulgent and those that are neglectful.