Parent and adolescent contributors to teenage misconduct in western and Asian high school students in Hong Kong

This study examined relations among teenagers' and their mothers' reports o f values and autonomy expectations in relation to school misconduct in 58 C aucasian and 66 Asian high school students attending an international schoo l in Hong Kong. Caucasian students were reported to exhibit more misconduct than did Asian students. Across cultures, teenagers' endorsements of the v alues related to Openness to Change, and early autonomy expectations correl ated positively whereas values related to Conservation correlated negativel y with misconduct measures. Valuing tradition and conformity correlated neg atively with disciplinary violations. Differences between teenagers' and th eir mothers' values significantly predicted disciplinary violations, provid ing evidence for the influence of parent/teenager interaction effects withi n families. The mediating role of values and autonomy expectations in expla ining the link between culture and disciplinary violations is discussed in the light of these findings.