Can Perceptions of Social Supports be Predicted from ...

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Memories of Adolescence: Can Perceptions of Social Supports be Predicted from Baumrind's Traditional Parenting Typologies? a

Daniel G. Lagacé-Séguin & Amie E. DeLeavey

a

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Mount Saint Vincent University , Halifax , Nova Scotia , Canada Published online: 27 Mar 2012.

To cite this article: Daniel G. Lagacé-Séguin & Amie E. DeLeavey (2011) Memories of Adolescence: Can Perceptions of Social Supports be Predicted from Baumrind's Traditional Parenting Typologies?, International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 16:3, 245-264, DOI: 10.1080/02673843.2011.9748059 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2011.9748059

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International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 2011, Volume 16, pp. 245-264 © 2011 A B Academic Publishers Printed in Great Britain


Memories of Adolescence: Can Perceptions of Social Supports be Predicted from Baumrind's Traditional Parenting Typologies? Daniel G. Lagace-Seguin* and

Arnie E. DeLeavey Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

ABSTRACT This study examined the relationships between parenting and adolescent social support, retrospectively. From a more complex point-of-view, the predictive nature of various social supports was examined in relation to Baumrind's traditional parenting typologies. It was hypothesized that authoritarian or neglectful parenting styles would predict low perceived social support and that authoritative parenting styles would predict higher levels of perceived social support. To obtain information pertaining to adolescent development, a sample of 73 first and second year university students completed two questionnaires (Parental Authority Questionnaire, The Social Support Scale for College Students) that required them to think back to their adolescent years (on average five years in the past). Results revealed multiple simple and complex associations. For example, adolescents with authoritative mothers and fathers are more likely to seek social support from family and other adults and adolescents whose fathers employed an authoritarian style possess low perceived social support. Results are discussed in terms of the links between various parenting styles and specific developmental outcomes. Furthermore, the application of the current findings to family functioning is explored.

*All correspondence should be directed to the first author at [email protected] or at Mount Saint Vincent University, Department of Psychology, 166 Bedford Hwy, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, B3M 2J6

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INTRODUCTION

Adolescent perceptions, beliefs, and opinions are fundamentally important when considering the research underlying parenting practices. Well known, for some time, is that parents' parenting practices are associated with the social, cognitive, and physical wellbeing of children (e.g., Baumrind, 1971; Lagace-Seguin and Coplan, 2005; Smetana, 2005). Surprisingly, in relation to this knowledge base, relatively little is known about perceptions of parenting practices during the adolescent years and perceived social support. Contrary to popular belief, adolescents are significantly more influenced by their parents than peers (Brown, Mounts, Lamborn and Steinberg, 1993; Kandel, 1996) but this information is limited. In many respects, this lack of understanding is unfortunate because of the rich information that can be collected from samples of this population. This study aims to bridge the current gap and open up an empirical understanding of the various relations between parenting practices and adolescent perceptions of social support. PARENTING STYLES

Identifying the complexities of parenting can be a challenge. However, Baumrind (1971) has provided a seminal model most often cited to describe parenting constructs. The constructs include the authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive disciplinary styles. The authoritarian parenting style involves power assertion without warmth, nurturance, or two-way communication. In this respect, a parent who engages in this style is low in warmth, but high in control. Authoritarian parents attempt to control and evaluate the behaviours and attitudes of their children with an absolute set of standards. Above all, these parents value obedience, respect for authority, and preservation of order (Lagace-Seguin and Coplan, 2005). Children of authoritarian parents report low self-esteem, spontaneity and varied levels of social withdrawal (Coopersmith, 1967) and have been considered by others to be fearful, apprehensive, moody, unhappy, easily annoyed, passively hostile, vulnerable to stress, and unfriendly (Baumrind, 1987). Adolescents of authoritarian parenting continue to be less well adjusted than those who are actively engaged by parents using an authoritative style (Steinberg, Lamborn, Darling, Mounts and Dornbusch, 1994).


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Authoritative parents also set firm controls on the behaviour of their children and make strong demands for maturity, but are willing to listen to their child's point of view and even to adjust their behaviour accordingly. Parents who engage in authoritative parenting exercise control in combination with warmth, nurturance, democracy, and open parent-child communication. Solicitation of children's opinions and feelings as well as explanations and reasons for punishment are common practices for the authoritative parent. An authoritative parenting style is generally considered advantageous to many aspects of child development (e.g., Baumrind, 1978). Past researchers have shown that children of such parents tend to cope with stress successfully, to be independent, self-reliant, self-assertive, friendly with peers, and cooperative with parents (Baumrind, 1971), as well as intellectually and socially successful with a strong motivation to achieve (Maccoby and Martin, 1983). Researchers have suggested a variety of reasons why an authoritative parenting style supports children's competence (e.g., Kuczynski et al., 1987). Control that appears fair and reasonable to the child, not arbitrary, is far more likely to be complied with and internalized. Additionally, parents who are secure in the standards they hold for their children provide models of caring and concern as well as confident, assertive behaviour. Finally, authoritative parents make demands that fit with children's ability to take responsibility for their own behaviour. As a result, the authoritative parents provide their children with feelings of competence, and high self-esteem and mature, independent behaviours are fostered (e.g., Kuczynski et al., 1987). Permissive parents make few demands and engage in very little discipline (Baumrind, 1971). In general, permissive parents are warm and allow considerable self-regulation of their child's activities, making few maturity demands and do not insist that their children follow parentally defined standards (Baumrind, 1978). Permissive parents tend to have children who are rebellious, low in self-reliance and self-control, impulsive, aggressive, domineering, and low in achievement (Baumrind, 1971). It is apparent from the aforementioned empirical evidence that adolescent development can be reliably shaped by external sources such as variations in parenting typologies. However, it is less understood how internal cognitive sources fashion adolescent development. For example, self-perceptions of parenting, a cognitive variable internal to the individual, may have a significant impact.

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Adolescent Perceptions Research on adolescent perceptions of parenting practices is severely limited. However, the need for professionals and parents to obtain such information has the potential to make positive change in the area of parenting, family structure, and development. The instability and confusion parents and children endure throughout transitional periods like adolescence, demonstrates the importance and need for high elements of reciprocity, mutual understanding, respect, firm expectations paired with high levels of acceptance, warmth, and sensitivity. Adolescent perceptions of parental behaviour and attitude significantly influence behaviour (Berk, 2003). Therefore, examining the influence of perceptions on social support will help facilitate our understanding in this unique area. Researchers have suggested that parenting practices may be misinterpreted by adolescents resulting in fluctuating levels of depersonalization, anxiety, self-acceptance, and self-competence (e.g. Ohannessian, Lerner, Lerner and Eye, 1998; Medinnus, 1965; Wolfradt, Hempel and Miles, 2003). Like anxiety, low levels of self-acceptance and competence can also delay development. Given that perceptions of parental acceptance are significantly related to positive perceptions of the self (Baumrind, 1991a), it becomes important for parents to reassure adolescents of their unconditional love. Regardless of continuous peer acceptance, unconditional parental acceptance is essential for adolescents to maintain good levels of self-confidence for social development. The finding that adolescents who perceive low parental acceptance had higher levels of externalizing behaviours and internal problems (Bosco, Renk, Dinger, Epstein and Phares, 2003) indicates the need for more research on parenting based on adolescent experiences. After studying adolescents' perceptions of their mothers, Beckert, Strom and Strom (2007) identified several strengths and needs. They desired mothers to acquire more information about helping them succeed at school, arranging personal leisure time, and understanding current dating practices. Adolescents identified spending time with their mother and having a parent home after school as highly important. Likewise, adolescents wanted parents to set limits, assume authority, provide direction, and act as educators (Zipora, 1994). Clearly, there is a research base, albeit limited, that has demonstrated the influence of parental figures on adolescent development. The current research provides researchers, educators, parents, and families with insightful and encouraging

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information that could improve parent-adolescent and family relationships; ultimately improving adolescent development.


Social Support Along with encouraging socialization in youth, parents also tend to be cautious of who their children befriend. This type of parental monitoring includes surveillance of behaviours, emotions, manners, and social support networks. Therefore, parents typically take on the responsibility to educate and demonstrate appropriate social understanding for their children. From a social learning perspective, adolescents learn significantly through observational learning. According to Bandura (1977) "during exposure observers acquire mainly symbolic representations of the modeled activities which serve as guides for appropriate behaviour" (p. 24). Therefore, exposing children to prosocial behaviours and teaching positive social skills should facilitate and reinforce appropriate behaviours (Carlo, McGinley, Hayes, Batenhorst and Wilkinson, 2007). Since observational learning is highly influential, it is also important to recognize the potential influence of negative modeling. Providing demonstrations of misbehaviour will also serve as a guide for behaviour. Being aware of one's actions as parents fosters consistency and fairness within children as well as acceptable behaviours. Parents should also be concerned about influential parental practices and outcomes of external and internal behaviours on adolescent social development. Results from Galambos, Barker and Almeida (2003) found that adolescents displayed external behaviour problems when parents exhibited high levels of psychological and behavioural control. Results also found links between adolescents' externalizing and internalizing problems with deviant peer relationships. Assuming these types of social relationships are built on the commonality of behaving defiantly, it is important to be aware of future negative influences. Typically, children and adolescents respond negatively towards externalizing behaviour and so social development is at risk of being underdeveloped. Adolescent hostility could also create negative feelings among peers potentially hindering their social support and development. As cited in McGillicuddy-De Lisi and DeLisi (2007), researchers like Baumrind (1971) and Dornbusch, Ritter, Leiderman and Roberts (1987) have identified high levels of hostility in children of authoritarian parents. The social


250 challenges these children (and later as adolescents) struggle with every day might have been prevented through better parenting skills. Another concern, particularly for social support and development, is the emotions children express to each other and how displays of specific emotions may be influenced by exposure to a certain style of parenting. Chen, Dong and Zhou (1997) found positive associations between authoritarian parenting and aggression-disruption within adolescents. They also found negative associations between authoritarian parenting and peer acceptance and sociability-competence. Although authoritarian parenting practices may be acceptable in some cultures, it could explain several social barriers experienced by immigrant children and adolescents after moving to an unfamiliar culture. Evidently, parenting styles do influence adolescent social support and development. Thus far, researchers have shown the links between adolescent perceptions of parents' parenting and their influence on various areas of development such as selfesteem, locus of control, self-competence, and social relationships. However, as aforementioned, another area important to social development is adolescent perceptions of social support. Further to this, the perceived importance of social support. Together, these variables can provide an untold story in the extant literature. In summary then, social support is defined as "an individual's perceptions of general support or specific supportive behaviours (available or enacted on) from people in their social network, which enhances their functioning or may buffer them from adverse outcomes" (Demaray and Malecki, 2002; p. 215). Specifically, four sources of social support (family, other adults, close friends, and peers) are examined in this study. Associations between social support and traditional parenting typologies are emphasized. CURRENT STUDY AND HYPOTHESES

The complexities associated with parenting make it an important area of investigation. Among the three types of parenting styles outlined by Baumrind (1971), authoritative practices have been the most beneficial for adolescent development and family unity. Parents who espouse this type of parenting have adolescents who receive a supportive, warm, and accepting environment to develop cognitively, emotionally, socially, and academically. It stands to reason that these adolescents will develop an understanding of


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the importance of social support and may be more apt to seek it out. The authoritarian and permissive parenting typologies are typically associated with average or deleterious outcomes in childhood and beyond. For children whose parents are espousing these typologies, one might speculate an increased negative view of social support with less proactive attempts to seek out supports. Exploratory hypothesis were developed. More specifically, adolescents who perceived that their parents used an authoritarian or permissive parenting style will seek social support less often and will place less social support importance from family, other adults, friends, and peers. Likewise, adolescents who perceived positive parenting practices or perceived that their parents used an authoritative parenting style will perceive higher support and place more importance on social support from family, other adults, friends and peers. METHODOLOGY Participants One hundred and twenty-five questionnaires were distributed and 73 were completed and returned, resulting in a 58% return rate. The 73 participants were primarily Caucasian undergraduate students between the ages of 17 and 20 (Mage = 18.42) attending an East Coast Canadian university. Recruitment occurred at the end of the academic year. Measures and Procedure The scales that were used in the current study included the Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ) and the Social Support Scale for College Students (SSSCS). Both were responded to via a retrospective approach. Retrospective studies are an excellent method for researchers to investigate issues from childhood and adolescence, and provides the opportunity to gain valuable insight about issues we may not otherwise be able to study (e.g. Duncan 1999; Freeman, Stoch, Chan and Hutchinson, 2004; Sentell, 2008). It is also a great source for identifying longitudinal relations between variables such as parenting and child or adolescent related outcomes. A seminal study by Rosenthal (1963) found accurate retrospective memories of men's relationship with


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parents and their social and emotional characteristics during adolescence with adolescent self-pictures. And, more recently, Dalton, Frick-Horbury, and Kitzmann (2006) found adults reports of parenting received during adolescence significantly affected the quality of relationships they currently held with parents and romantic partners. In all, retrospective studies share impressive psychometric properties with studies of a concurrent nature and help to answer questions that may otherwise be left untapped. Students were asked to participate in a study about adolescent perceptions of their parents' parenting practices. A short explanation of the objectives of the study were given and students wishing to partake in the study were asked to complete two questionnaires that would take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete. As mentioned earlier, The Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ, Buri, 1991) and The Social Support Scale for College Students (SSSCS, Malecki and Demaray, 2001) were employed in the current study. The PAQ provides indications of the degree to which one perceives a parent as displaying authoritarian, authoritative, or permissive types of parenting. The SSSCS provides indications of perceived social support from family, other adults, peers and friends and also assesses the degree to which participants rate the importance of each of the sources of support. Each subscale within the major scales possesses acceptable psychometric stability (alpha reliability coefficients range from .68 to .93) and each are based on a likert scale format from one (strongly disagree) to five (strongly agree) for the PAQ and one (never) to six (always) for the SSSCS. RESULTS The primary goal of this study was to identify the predictive nature of perceived social support from traditional parenting typologies. Before making this assessment, bivariate correlations between adolescent perceptions of parenting practices and perceptions of social support from four different sources were investigated. Results are presented in a logical sequence beginning with preliminary data analyses* followed by correlations between social support and the parenting typologies. Finally, multiple regression analyses are presented to indicate if perceived *All sub-variables associated with parenting and social support were correlated within-group in the expected directions, but are not presented here in the interests of parsimony.

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social support can be predicted from traditional parenting typologies.


Preliminary Analysis All means and standard deviations can be seen in Table 1 for the parenting typologies (authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles), and perceived social support as well as perceived importance of social support indicators. The correlations between perceived authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles, perceived social support, and perceived importance of social support are displayed in Table 2. There were significant positive correlations between authoritative mothers parenting and perceived social support from family (r (72) = .42, p < .01), perceived social support from other adults (r (72) = .27, p < .05), and perceived importance of social support from other adults (r (72) = .31, p < .01). There were significant positive correlations between authoritative fathers and perceived social support from family (r (72) = .46, p < .01), perceived social support from other adults (r (72) = .29, p < .05), and perceived social support from peers (r (72) = .25, p < .05). There were also significant negative correlations between authoritarian mothers parenting and perceived importance of social support from family (r (72) = -.29, p < .05), and peers (r (72) = -.30, p < .01), authoritarian fathers and perceived importance of social support from friends (r (72) = -.24, p < .05), and peers (r (72) = -.29, p < .05), and authoritarian fathers and social support from friends (r (72) = -.26, p < .05), and peers (r (72) = -.28, p < .05). There were no other statistically significant correlations. Multiple Regression Analysis Multiple regression analysis was employed to examine if typologies of authoritative, permissive, and/ or authoritarian mothers and fathers could predict social support from peers, friends, family, and other adults.* In addition authoritative, permissive, and/ or authoritarian parenting styles of mother and fathers were examined to determine if they could predict

*All multiple regression analyses were conducted using a family-wise alpha level to reduce chance findings

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TABLE 1 Means and Standard Deviations for all Variables Mean

Standard Deviation

2.56 2.57 2.56 2.92

.65 .67


Types of Parenting1 Permissive Mothers Permissive Fathers Authoritarian Mothers Authoritarian Fathers Authoritative Mothers Authoritative Fathers

3.64 3.28

.87

.99 .74 .85

Types2 /Importance3 of Social Support Family Imp. Family Other Adults Imp. Other Adults Friends Imp. Friends Peers Imp. Peers

4.75 2.51

.82 .35

4.37 2.35 4.86

.79 .34

.79

2.47

.35

4.32

.93

2.23

.37

1

on a 5 point Iikert scale on a 6 point Iikert scale 3on a 3 point Iikert scale 2

the importance of social support from peers, friends, family, and other adults.

Social Support Multiple regression analyses revealed that perceived social support from family can be predicted from a combination of authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles of mothers (F (3, 72) = 2.95, p < .01, R2adj = .15). Within the same equation, it was revealed that authoritative parenting styles of mothers were the most predictive of an adolescent's perception of social support from family (b (72) = .39, p < .01). Multiple regression analyses revealed that perceived social support from

Other Adults .27* -.06 -.01 .29* -.20 -.03

Family

.42** -.18 -.07 .46** -.16 -.01

Types of Parenting:

Authoritative Mothers Authoritarian Mothers Permissive Mothers Authoritative Fathers Authoritarian Fathers Permissive Fathers .23 -.01 .00 .23 -.26* .03

Friends

Social Support

.20 -.16 .10 .25* -.28* .03

Peers .23 -.29* -.03 .14 -.21 -.11

Family

.31** -.20 .04 .12 -.23 .10

Other Adults

.16 -.18 -.14 .02 -.24* -.09

Friends

.11 -.30** .20 .10 -.29* .04

Peers

Importance of Social Support

Correlations between Perceived Authoritative, Authoritarian, and Permissive Parenting Styles, and Perceived Social Support, and Perceived Importance of Social Support

TABLE 2


N Ul Ul


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peers can be predicted from a combination of authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles of fathers (F (3, 72) = 3.26, p < .05, R2adj = .09). And, within the same equation, authoritarian parenting styles of fathers was the most predictive of an adolescent's perception of social support from peers (b (72) = -.26, p < .05). Multiple regression analyses revealed that perceived social support from family can be predicted from a combination of authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles of fathers (F (3, 72) = 6.61, p < .01, R2adj = .19) and that authoritative parenting styles of fathers was the most predictive of an adolescent's perception of social support from family (b (72) = .45, p < .01). Furthermore, multiple regression analyses revealed that perceived social support from other adults can be predicted from a combination of authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles of fathers (F (3, 72) = 3.03, p < .05, R2adj = .08) and that authoritative parenting styles of fathers was the most predictive of an adolescent's perceptions of social support from other adults (b (72) = .27, p < .05).

Importance of Social Support Multiple regression analyses revealed that perceived importance of social support from family can be predicted from a combination of authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles of mothers (F (3, 72) = 2.87, p < .05, R2adj = .07) and that authoritarian parenting styles of mothers were the most predictive of perceived importance of social support from family (b (72) = -.26, p < .05). Multiple regression analyses also revealed that perceived importance of social support from other adults can be predicted from a combination of authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles of mothers (F (3, 72) = 2.85, p < .05, R2adj = .07) with authoritative parenting styles of mothers being the most predictive of perceived importance of social support from other adults (b (72) = .28, p < .05). Finally, multiple regression analyses revealed that perceived importance of social support from peers can be predicted from a combination of authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting style of mothers (F (3, 72) = 2.92, p < .05, R2adj = .07). Within the same equation, it was discovered that perceived authoritarian parenting styles of mothers were the most predictive of perceived importance of social support from peers (b (72) = -.26, p < .05).

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DISCUSSION The purpose of the current study was to examine the predictive nature of a select number of social supports from traditional parenting typologies based on both maternal and paternal parenting patterns. The results of the study revealed numerous interesting patterns in the regression analyses. It can be recalled that there was a significant negative correlation between perceived authoritarian parenting styles of fathers and perceived social support from friends as well as peers. This indicates that the more a father exhibits authoritarian parenting practices, the less social support an adolescent perceives to receive from friends and peers. While relationships with friends and peers during adolescence are often perceived to prevail over that of parents, parents continue to be in a position to be the primary influence for their children (Brown et al. 1993; Kandel, 1996). Therefore, dismissing the associations between parenting and the social well-being of children would leave a substantial gap in our knowledge regarding parents who have substantial influence on the quality of social relationships during adolescence, particularly with peers (Cui, Conger, Bryant and Elder, 2002). From this study we can speculate that communication techniques and behaviour methods of parents who espouse an authoritarian parenting style fail to teach children the skills necessary to create and maintain healthy social relationships with peers. The authoritarian style can be understood as a hindrance in this example. Similarly, through observational learning (Bandura, 1977), adolescents model behaviours their parents demonstrate and often internalize them. Thus, adolescents may begin applying those behaviours to other relationships in their lives expecting to obtain the same results. Perhaps this leads to establishing unhealthy relationships with friends/peers that lack social support. Authoritarian parenting is not successful at increasing self-esteem with adolescents. Since adolescent implicit and/ or explicit self-esteem develops out of their experiences with their parents (Dehart, Pelham and Tennen, 2006), it is important to use appropriate parenting methods. Should adolescents' interactions with parents consistently be negative, adolescents are at-risk of developing low self-esteem thereby supporting their inability to provide their share of social support required in peer relationships. How one's perceived by peers can certainly influence levels of social support. Adolescents who display problematic behaviour


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associated with an authoritarian style of parenting (Galambos et al., 2003) may create obstacles restricting opportunities to establish important relationships with friends/peers that provide high levels of social support. Such challenging behaviour may also create tension among existing friendships and may cease any social support currently being exchanged. This type of behaviour could seep into and function similarly in various other relationships, leading to very few social relationships with little social support. Low social support from adolescents being exposed to authoritarian parenting styles could be indicative of consistently low social development. There was a significant positive correlation between social support and authoritative parenting of mothers and fathers. This indicates that an adolescent who perceives his/her mother and/ or father to espouse authoritative parenting practices, report experiencing higher social support. Authoritative parenting practices include high levels of acceptance and involvement, warmth, respect, and open communication (Pellerin, 2005). Specifically, in this finding, the positive correlation exists between authoritative parenting and perceived social support from family and other adults. Additionally, fathers' authoritative style was positively correlated to perceived social support from peers. This indicates that an adolescent who perceives their mother and father to exhibit authoritative parenting practices will perceive themselves as having higher social support from family and other adults, and those who perceive their father to exhibit authoritative parenting practices will perceive to have higher social support from family, other adults, and peers. It is known that social support enhances an individual's functioning (Demaray and Malecki, 2002). Receiving higher social support from family and other adults may promote skills that are impressive, practical, trustworthy, responsible, and can foster successful creative ideas. Likewise, these same skills promote characteristics that are viewed as a benefit to others. Authoritative parenting may provide adolescents with such versatile capabilities that other adults in their lives perceive the capabilities as highly adaptive and useful. Therefore, other adults may be drawn to provide additional support to help harvest those skills even further. Positioned within the existing literature, the aforementioned findings are extremely novel. This said, the importance of social support is also an area that requires elaboration and speculation because of its importance to the parenting and adolescent development literature. Within the current findings it is noted


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that authoritative parenting styles of mothers predicted a positive relationship with an adolescent's perceived importance of social support from other adults. Interestingly, it also revealed that authoritarian parenting styles of mothers predicted a negative relationship with an adolescent's perceived importance of social support from family and peers. While some adolescents exposed to authoritative practices may seek additional support from extended kin, adolescents from an authoritarian environment may feel lack of social support from home is reason enough to not place additional importance of social support to others outside the immediate family. In addition to this, adolescents from authoritarian environments may also lack knowledge of the concept of social support which may contribute to its lack of importance. What this means for future researchers is that it's necessary to explore, in more detail, the impact of maternal authoritarian practices and its relations to the cognitive positioning of adolescents with respect to the importance of support. Multiple regression analysis solidifies the importance of parenting styles regarding adolescents' perception of support. While perceived social support from family can be predicted from a combination of authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles, perceived authoritative parenting styles of mothers and fathers were most predictive of an adolescent's perceived social support from family. This analysis demonstrates the importance of exhibiting a parenting style that focuses on maintaining high levels of acceptance and involvement with warmth, respect and open communication. This said, implications can be drawn to help explain adolescents' level of withdrawal or involvement within the family unit. Adolescents who have parents espousing the authoritative style will likely be more involved and contribute more effectively as the result of the simple nature of the parenting typology. In addition, simply understanding that types of parenting predict adolescent perceptions is useful in itself. Parents need to be aware that their impact on development continues past the first five years. While both mothers' and fathers' authoritative practices can be said to predict an adolescent's perception of family support, fathers' associations were slightly higher than mothers as can be seen in comparing the standardized beta coefficients. Perhaps this speaks to the continuous increase in mothers remaining in the workforce longer and/ or returning earlier. As a result, paternal responsibility may increase giving fathers more opportunity to connect with their children and thus being more influential in terms of their parenting practices. On the other hand, Paquette,


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Bolte, Turcotte, Dubeau and Bouchard (2000) suggest that stimulating fathers (a subgroup of authoritative parenting) are more secure in their social relationships than other fathers. Fathers who are more secure in their own social relationships would be more likely to engage their children in environments to establish secure social relationships (e.g., extra curricular activities). While it cannot be investigated empirically to support this claim, it may be that the fathers of the current sample were a subset of "stimulating fathers". In addition, fathers exhibiting an authoritative parenting style predicted adolescents' perception of social support from other adults. From this information it is important to consider how adolescents perceive their fathers' parenting style and the relationships their children will harvest with other adults as a result. Perhaps an authoritative parenting style provides adolescents with a desired balanced foundation of high acceptance and involvement with warmth, respect, and open communication. As a result of this, adolescents seek out other adults providing similar support. In that case, adolescents whose father's parent authoritatively may instill the desire to have similar levels of social support from other adults in their lives. This may create a broader social network that adolescents can continue seeking other adults exhibiting similar practices to that of their fathers for additional positive social support. Furthermore, this provides adolescents with the opportunity to construct a stronger social peer network with other adults that may have children similar in age. Adults displaying a more authoritarian or permissive parenting approach may be avoided by adolescents whose fathers espouse authoritative parenting because they may recognize the potential negative social developmental outcomes. Since peers become an important part of an adolescent's life, it is necessary to determine the influence various parenting styles have on those perceived relationships. This study found that the more an adolescent perceived their father to have an authoritarian parenting style, the less likely they were to perceive social support from peers. Adolescence may be one of the most challenging developmental stages for positive social development. Adolescents often tum to their peers for additional social support to overcome the many difficulties endured during this time. Authoritarian parenting style of fathers may create more difficulty for adolescents to reach out to peers for social support because they have pre-established ideas of social support currently instilled by poor parenting. Or, on the other hand, it may simply be that peers who are aware of parenting


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behaviours, stay away from adolescence of authoritarian fathers. For obvious reasons, this leads to an impossible situation in which peer support could be gained. In the current study it was also revealed that importance of perceived social support in the lives of adolescents has important connections with traditional parenting typologies. In addition to adolescents perceiving less support from peers when their fathers exhibited an authoritarian parenting, they also perceived support from peers as less important when their mothers displayed an authoritarian parenting style. Adolescents also perceived social support from family to be less important the more authoritarian their mothers were in adolescence. As aforementioned, mothers who engage in this type of parenting place importance on power assertion without warmth, nurture, or open communication. This type of parenting fails to demonstrate effective social relationships and thus leaves adolescents with little social support both within their family structures and social communities. In essence, support becomes less important and less at the forefront of the adolescent's mind. Overall, this study has contributed to literature in a number of ways. First, it has provided additional support that parenting styles are related to adolescent development, specifically social development. While the current study has noted a relationship between parenting style and social development, we cannot assume causation. However, it is plausible that adolescents who perceive they received little social support may be experiencing a negative home environment. Results from Smetana (1995) suggest authoritarian and/ or permissive childrearing practices are inconsistent with regards to adolescent social issues. Findings from this study can be taken to indicate that parents exhibiting an authoritarian and/ or permissive childrearing practice were more likely to display inconsistencies around moral, conventional, and personal boundaries compared to an authoritative parenting style. Such approaches towards social issues might contribute to an adolescent's inability to maintain strong social networks. Nonetheless, it is important to consider all implications from the results of the current study. Secondly, this study has emphasized the value of adolescent perceptions in terms of measuring parenting skills regarding social development. Using a retrospective approach, this study has provided adolescents the opportunity to voice opinions about how successful different parenting typologies are perceived to be in teaching essential social skills. And third, this study has explored relationships between adolescents and various types of


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parenting which in tum delivers useful information for future and current parents to consider when a social developmental concern arises. These relationships can act as valuable resources when families are searching for assistance in solving family difficulties. These results hold multiple implications. For example, existing parenting programs that employ role playing, or negotiation skills may benefit from the current set of results. Teaching parents the skills associated with authoritative parenting practices and educating them about how they are associated with social support and how to implement them is of great value. Furthermore, individuals working in the field of childcare can gain considerable knowledge about adjusting their own communicative competence which will lead to increased positive perceptions and relationships with children. CONCLUSIONS

The current study has provided additional information on parenting and adolescents' perceptions of social support. While researchers currently report results regarding childhood developmental outcomes from authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting, the findings are focused on young children and it is widely known that perceptions change as we age. Parenting styles are related to adolescent development and as it was shown in this study, to perceptions of social support. That said, there are still many untapped areas that researchers need to explore in order to unravel the complex associations that still lay hidden between parents and their adolescent children. REFERENCES Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Prentice-Hall; New Jersey. Baumrind, D. (1987). A developmental perspective on adolescent risk taking in contempary America. Journal of New Directions for Child Development, 37, 93-135. doi: 10.1002/ cd.23219873706 Baumrind, D. (1971). Current patterns of parental authority. Developmental Psychology, 4(1), 1-103. doi:10.1037 /h0030372 Baumrind, D. (1978). Reciprocal rights and responsibilities in parent-child relations. Journal of Social Issues, 34(2), 179-196. Baumrind, D. (1991a). The influence of parenting style on adolescent competence and substance use. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 11(1), 56-95. doi:10.1177 /0272431691111004


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