Adolescents as active agents in the socialization process: Legitimacy of parental authority and obligation to obey as predictors of obedience

Abstract

Adolescents’ agreement with parental standards and beliefs about the legitimacy of parental authority and their own obligation to obey were used to predict adolescents’ obedience, controlling for parental monitoring, rules, and rule enforcement. Hierarchical linear models were used to predict both between-adolescent and within-adolescent, issue-specific differences in obedience in a sample of 703 Chilean adolescents (M age=15.0 years). Adolescents’ global agreement with parents and global beliefs about their obligation to obey predicted between-adolescent obedience, controlling for parental monitoring, age, and gender. Adolescents’ issue-specific agreement, legitimacy beliefs, and obligation to obey predicted issue-specific obedience, controlling for rules and parents’ reports of rule enforcement. The potential of examining adolescents’ agreement and beliefs about authority as a key link between parenting practices and adolescents’ decisions to obey is discussed.

Publisher

Academic Press

Publication Date

1-1-2007

Publication Title

Journal of Adolescence

Department

Psychology

Document Type

Article

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2006.03.003

Language

English

Format

text

Link to Full Text

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