Parental autonomy granting during adolescence: Exploring gender differences in context

This study investigated the ways in which 2 indicators of parental autonomy granting, adolescents' decision-making input and parental knowledge of ado lescents' daily experiences, differed as a function of contextual factors ( i.e., parents' gender role attitudes or sibling dyad sex composition) and b oys' and girls' personal qualities (i.e., gender, pubertal status, developm ental status, or birth order) in a sample of 194 families with firstborn (M = 15.0 years) and second-born (M = 12.5 years) adolescents. Firstborns wer e granted more autonomy than second borns, especially in families with firs tborn girls and second-born boys. Girls in families marked by traditional m aternal gender role attitudes were granted fewer autonomy opportunities. Po stmenarcheal second-born girls were granted more opportunities for autonomy than were premenarcheal second-born girls, but only in families with less traditional maternal gender role attitudes.