| The purpose of this study was to examine the interplay of two important socialization contexts, home and the peer group, in the development of adolescents' internalizing, externalizing, and prosocial behaviors. Participants were 371 9th, 10th, and 11th graders at an urban high school (56% female), 209 of which comprised a longitudinal sample. Self-report and peer-report questionnaires were collected from participants in the fall and/or spring of the school year to assess perceptions of parenting behaviors (affectionate contact, coercion, overprotection, threats of rejection), sociometric status, feelings of self-worth, perceptions of social competence, and aggressive, anxious/withdrawn, and prosocial behaviors. Main effects hypotheses were that coercive parenting behaviors (low affectionate contact, high coercion, and high threats of rejection) and overprotective parenting would be associated with maladjustment outcomes. It was expected that this relation would be attenuated for adolescents who had positive relationships with peers, but exacerbated for those with poor peer relationships. High levels of coercive parenting were associated with increased self-reported aggression and decreased feelings of self-worth both concurrently and longitudinally, but unrelated to peer-reported internalizing behaviors. High overprotection was related to lower feelings of self-worth concurrently, but unrelated to peer-reported internalizing behaviors at either time point. There was also a trend for overprotection to lead to decreases in peer-reported aggression. Boys were found to be particularly vulnerable to the deleterious effects of negative parenting on adjustment. Supplemental analyses indicated that adolescent behavior predicted longitudinal changes in parenting practices, providing support for a transactional model of development. Peer relationship variables (peer acceptance and rejection, number of friends and enemies, perceived social competence, and behavioral characteristics of reciprocal friends) were tested as moderators of the relation between parenting and adjustment indices. The majority of significant findings were consistent with expectations that peer relationships can moderate the effects of parenting on adjustment. Group-level peer relationships as well as self-perceptions of social competence were found to be more consistent moderators of associations between parenting and adjustment, while results for dyadic friendships were mixed. Results support the conceptualization that peer relationships and self-perceptions can be moderating factors in developmental pathways to adolescent adjustment. |
