Parental Support, Psychological Control and Behavioral Control: Assessing Relevance Across Time, Culture and Method

What can parents, and others interested in adolescents, do to facilitate their healthy development? In many decades of work, researchers have continually identified three central dimensions of parenting: support, behavioral control, and psychological control, all of which have been associated consistently with either positive or negative indicators of adolescent functioning. Notwithstanding its volume, the research has been non specific as to the effects of these dimensions and has otherwise been limited by a predominant concentration on western families. This monograph reported on research that addressed these limitations by testing specific effects of the parenting dimensions and by doing with multiple analytic techniques on data from adolescents in 11 cultures across the world. In all sites, it was found that support was associated with higher adolescent social competence and lower depression; psychological control with higher depression and antisocial behavior; and behavioral control with lower antisocial behavior. Recommendations included considering that these dimensions are the parental contribution to relationship types or socialization conditions that, when achieved, (with parents or other significant person) are responsible for the effects.