Parents' affect, adolescent cognitive representations, and adolescent social development

Prior research regarding the role of parent-child relationships in children 's social development generally has been limited to concurrent or shortterm longitudinal data and has focused primarily on mothers' influence in the e arly or middle childhood years. Using a multimethod, multiinformant design, the present study extends previous findings by examining whether maternal and paternal affect predicted adolescent social behavior and peer acceptanc e 2 years later. Both maternal and parental affect had significant direct a nd indirect effects (via adolescent cognitive representations of parents) o n adolescent negative social behavior as reported by siblings, which in tur n predicted decreased peer acceptance as rated by teachers. Findings sugges t that both mothers and fathers shape adolescent social development and att est to the importance of exploring multiple pathways that malt account for continuity in parent-child and peer relationships.