Birth Order, Sibship Size and Social Class as Antecedents of Adolescents' Acceptance of Parents' Authority

Abstract

On the basis of past theory and research concerning social-structural differences in acceptance of parents' wishes, it is hypothesized that the legitimacy of parents' authority will be more fully accepted by firstborn middle-class adolescents from small families than *by later-born working-class adolescents from large families, and alternative theoretical interpretations of the predicted differences are developed. Questionnaire data from 1,415 tenth grade public school students and university freshmen indicate that: (a) parents' educational authority is accepted more fully in the middle than in the working class, (b) male adolescents from small families accept the father's educational and heterosexual authority more fully than male adolescents from large families, and (c) the authority of parents is accepted more fully by first-born than by later-born male adolescents. The alternative interpretations of the findings are assessed. In the nuclear family, the parent occupies a position of authority over dependent offspring; but the parent's authority-especially over adolescents-rests, in large part, upon offsprings' acceptance of the legitimacy of parental control. Two studies by the author (Smith, 1970a; 1970b) have indicated that a substantial proportion of the variance in parental influence upon adolescents may be accounted for by variability in adolescents' acceptance of the legitimacy of parental authority. At this point, an effort to identify some of the antecedents which might determine adolescents' acceptance of parents' authority would seem to be in order. Past theory and research relevant to differences in the extents to which children and adolescents follow parents' wishes suggest that birth order, sibship size, and social class might appropriately be investigated as possible antecedents of adolescent acceptance of parental authority. BIRTH ORDER, SIBSHIP SIZE, AND SOCIAL-CLASS DIFFERENCES IN ACCEPTANCE OF PARENTS