Patterns of parenting during adolescence: perceptions of adolescents and parents.

The purposes of this study were (1) to explore differences in maternal and paternal parenting style and parental involvement, (2) to examine the differences between parents' and adolescents' perceptions of parenting style and parental involvement, and (3) to explore the changes in parenting style and parental involvement between the adolescents' ninth and twelfth grade years. Subjects were 244 ninth graders recruited from several school districts in the Southeast and Midwest. Thirty-one subjects participated in a small longitudinal study three years later when they were in the twelfth grade. Measures of maternal and parental demandingness, responsiveness, values toward achievement, involvement in schoolwork, and involvement in school functions, designed for this program of research, were obtained from both adolescents and their parents. Results showed that both adolescents and parents perceived mothers to be more involved in parenting than were fathers during both ninth and twelfth grades. Mothers and fathers were not found to be different regarding their values toward achievement. Additionally, both mothers and fathers perceived themselves to be higher on all aspects of parenting than their adolescents perceived them to be during both ninth and twelfth grades. In the longitudinal study, both adolescents and parents perceived levels of parenting to drop between ninth and twelfth grades, except values toward achievement which did not change. Implications for interpretation of existing research and for considerations of future research are discussed.

Birth order and family size: influences on adolescents' achievement and related parenting behaviors.

The purposes of this study were to confirm birth-order and family-size differences in achievement, to confirm birth-order and family-size differences in parenting, and to examine whether parenting style and parental involvement serve as mediators of birth-order and family-size differences in achievement. Subjects were 195 ninth-grade boys and girls and their parents from urban, suburban, and rural communities in the southeast and the midwest. Questionnaire measures of adolescents' and parents' perceptions of parenting style and parental involvement were used. Birth-order and family-size differences were found in adolescents' achievement and perceptions of parenting style and parental involvement but not in parents' perceptions of parenting. However, these parenting characteristics did not mediate the differences seen in achievement by birth order and family size. Implications of these findings are discussed.