Legitimacy Of Parental Authority Research Articles

Similarity between Early and Middle Adolescent Close Friends’ Beliefs about Personal Jurisdiction

AbstractSimilarity in close friends’ beliefs about personal jurisdiction was examined using questionnaires and interviews with 162 early (Mage = 11.82) and middle (Mage = 15.68) adolescents who were matched with reciprocally nominated close friends. Using the framework of social domain theory, beliefs about personal jurisdiction were assessed for personal, social conventional, prudential, and multifaceted issues. As hypothesized, close friends were more similar than non‐friends in their ratings of legitimate parental authority and the degree of harm and consequences to others for prudential and multifaceted issues. Also as expected, friends were similar in their justifications for the legitimacy of parental authority over multifaceted issues. Similarity was moderated by age, direct discussion, and friendship duration; effects varied according to the domain of the issue. Results were discussed in terms of peers’ influence on adolescents’ push for increased autonomy.

Individual Differences in Adolescents’ Beliefs About the Legitimacy of Parental Authority and Their Own Obligation to Obey: A Longitudinal Investigation

Adolescents' beliefs about the legitimacy of parental authority and obligation to obey were examined in 568 Chilean adolescents (11-14 years old at Wave 1), followed once a year for 4 years. Adolescents' beliefs about parental legitimacy and obligation to obey declined with age. The steepest decline occurred during early adolescence, particularly in the personal domain. Adolescents who were uninvolved in problem behavior and perceived their parents to be supportive or high in monitoring at Wave 1 were more likely to endorse parental legitimacy and obligation to obey over time. There was little evidence that parenting or problem behavior moderated the normative decline in adolescents' beliefs about parental authority. Findings concerning individual differences in adolescents' endorsement of parental authority are highlighted in this study.

Adolescents’ as active agents in the socialization process: Legitimacy of parental authority and obligation to obey as predictors of obedience

Adolescents’ agreement with parental standards and beliefs about the legitimacy of parental authority and their own obligation to obey were used to predict adolescents’ obedience, controlling for parental monitoring, rules, and rule enforcement. Hierarchical linear models were used to predict both between-adolescent and within-adolescent, issue-specific differences in obedience in a sample of 703 Chilean adolescents ( M age=15.0 years). Adolescents’ global agreement with parents and global beliefs about their obligation to obey predicted between-adolescent obedience, controlling for parental monitoring, age, and gender. Adolescents’ issue-specific agreement, legitimacy beliefs, and obligation to obey predicted issue-specific obedience, controlling for rules and parents’ reports of rule enforcement. The potential of examining adolescents’ agreement and beliefs about authority as a key link between parenting practices and adolescents’ decisions to obey is discussed.

Chilean adolescents’ beliefs about the legitimacy of parental authority: Individual and age-related differences

Individual and age-related differences in the patterning of adolescents’ beliefs about the legitimacy of parental authority were examined in a sample of 3425 Chilean adolescents (Mage = 15.0). During early, middle, and late adolescence, three analogous patterns of beliefs about the legitimacy of parental authority were identified using latent class analysis (LCA). Youth in the Parental Control class ceded parents legitimate control over issues in the multi-faceted and prudential domains and were relatively likely to cede parental control over the personal domain. Those in the Shared Control class differentiated the prudential from other domains. Those in the Personal Control class denied parents legitimate authority over issues in all domains. Within analogous classes, younger adolescents were more likely to grant parents legitimate authority than older adolescents. Results are consistent with prior research documenting age-related differences, but raise important questions about the normative nature of age-related change in legitimacy beliefs. The advantages of studying sub-groups and variability in the patterning of legitimacy beliefs are discussed.

Rules, legitimacy of parental authority, and obligation to obey in Chile, the Philippines, and the United States

With age, Chilean, Filipino, and U.S. youth come to believe that fewer issues are legitimately within the control of parents and that they are less obliged to obey parental rules. These beliefs vary across domains and countries, providing insight into parent-adolescent conflict and the development of autonomy.

Perceived legitimacy of parental authority and tobacco and alcohol use during early adolescence.

To assess the likelihood that young adolescents perceive that parents have legitimate authority regarding cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption; to test whether perceived parental authority predicts adolescents' use of tobacco and alcohol, and to test the association between parenting style and the legitimacy of parental authority regarding tobacco and alcohol. Survey data were obtained in 1997 from 1220 sixth and eighth grade adolescents enrolled in a central North Carolina school district. The sample comprised 72.3% of 1687 eligible students and 92.3% of 1321 students with parental consent; 83.8% of the sample was European-American and 16.2% African-American. Students completed self-report questionnaires administered in classrooms. Logistic regression models were used to test the study hypotheses. Adolescents were significantly more likely to legitimize parental authority regarding tobacco and alcohol than parental authority regarding conventional or contemporary issues. Failure to legitimize parental authority was associated with significantly greater odds of current smoking (OR = 4.06; p <.000) or drinking (OR = 3.81; p <.000) among all respondents, and significantly greater odds of intending to smoke (OR = 3.38; p <.000) or drink (OR = 3.38; p <.000) among abstinent respondents. Adolescents' perceptions of parental authority regarding tobacco and alcohol varied significantly by parenting style. The results discredit the myth that adolescents uniformly disregard parental values and rules regarding tobacco and alcohol. The results also showed that general parenting style covaried strongly with adolescents' perceptions of parental authority regarding substance use. Additional research is warranted to test for causal relations between general parenting style, adolescents' perceptions of parental authority regarding substance use, and adolescents' risk of substance use.

Parenting styles and conceptions of parental authority during adolescence.

Reports of parenting styles were assessed in 110 primarily white, middle-class sixth, eighth, and tenth graders (M = 11.98, 13.84, and 16.18 years of age) and their parents (108 mothers and 92 fathers). Parents judged the legitimacy of parental authority and rated family conflict and rules regarding 24 hypothetical moral, conventional, personal, multifaceted (containing conventional and personal components), prudential, and friendship issues. Adolescents viewed their parents as more permissive and more authoritarian than parents viewed themselves, whereas parents viewed themselves as more authoritative than did adolescents. Parents' parenting styles differentiated their conceptions of parental authority, but adolescents' perceptions did not. Differences were primarily over the boundaries of adolescents' personal jurisdiction. Furthermore, conceptions of parental authority and parenting styles both contributed significantly to emotional autonomy and adolescent-parent conflict. The implications of the findings for typological models of parenting and distinct domain views of social-cognitive development are discussed.

Adolescents' and parents' conceptions of parental authority and personal autonomy.

Conceptions of parental authority and ratings of adolescent-parent conflict were assessed in 68 sixth, eighth, and tenth graders and their parents. Boundaries of adolescent personal jurisdiction and conflict over these boundaries were examined. Participants judged the legitimacy of parental authority and rated the frequency and intensity of conflict regarding 24 hypothetical moral, conventional, personal, multifaceted (e.g., containing conventional and personal components), prudential, and friendship issues. Adolescents and parents agreed that parents should retain authority regarding moral and conventional issues. Parents treated multifaceted, friendship, prudential, and personal issues as more contingent on parental authority than did adolescents, based on conventional, prudential, and psychological reasons, whereas adolescents treated these issues as under personal jurisdiction, based on personal concerns. Personal reasoning and judgments increased with age. Multifaceted issues were discussed more than all other issues, but moral and conventional conflicts were more intense than all other conflicts. The findings are discussed in terms of previous research on parental authority and adolescent-parent conflict during adolescence.

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

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