Authoritarianism of parents and offspring: Intergenerational politics and adjustment to college

The authoritarianism scores (RWA) of parents and their college aged childre n were hypothesized to interact to affect the intergenerational transmissio n of political altitudes and offspring adjustment to college. Parent and of fspring dyads who matched on RWA (both scored high or low) agreed about the importance of social events and on the mechanisms by which political attit udes were transmitted from parent to offspring. Disagreeing dyads (parent s cored high on RWA and offspring scored low or parent scored low on RWA and offspring scored high) did not show this pattern. In addition, 2-year longi tudinal data revealed that offspring who mismatched with their parents on a uthoritarianism had a more difficult time adjusting to college than did off spring who matched with their parents on authoritarianism. Discussion stres ses the importance of examining the implications of home context on the aut horitarianism of adolescent children. (C) 1999 Academic Press.