PARENTING STYLE AND ADOLESCENT DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS, SMOKING, AND ACADEMIC-ACHIEVEMENT - ETHNIC, GENDER, AND SES DIFFERENCES

This paper examines whether the relationship between parenting style a nd adolescent depressive symptoms, smoking, and academic grades varies according to ethnicity, gender and socioeconomic status. Four parenti ng styles are distinguished, based on patterns of parent-adolescent de cision making: autocratic (parents decide), authoritative (joint proce ss but parents decide), permissive (joint process but adolescent decid es), and unengaged (adolescent decides). The sample included 3993 15-y ear-old White, Hispanic, African-American, and Asian adolescents. Resu lts are generally consistent with previous findings. adolescents with authoritative parents had the best outcomes and those with unengaged p arents were least well adjusted, while the permissive and the autocrat ic styles produced intermediate results. For the most part, this patte rn held across ethnic and sociodemographic subgroups. There was one ex ception, suggesting that the relationship between parenting styles, es pecially the unengaged style, and depressive symptoms may vary accordi ng to gender and ethnicity. More research is needed to replicate and e xplain this pattern in terms of ecological factors, cultural norms, an d socialization goals and practices.