Abstract
This study examined whether parental legitimacy served as a mediator in the relation between parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, permissive) and adolescent engagement in four domain-specific rule-violating behaviors (RVB: relational aggression, assault, theft, substance use). A total of 708 middle school and high school students from the New Hampshire Youth Study were surveyed four times every six months for the current study. Using generalized structural equation modeling, results demonstrated that parental legitimacy was a mediator of authoritative parenting style, but was not a significant or consistent mediator for authoritarian and permissive parenting styles, with RVBs. Parental legitimacy fully mediated the relation between authoritative parenting and assault, theft, and relational aggression, but only partially mediated the relation with substance use. This finding suggests that parental legitimacy might be more important in certain domains of behavior than others. Moveover, this pattern mostly persisted when examining changes in RVB overtime and changes in parental legitimacy as a mediator. The implications of parental authority and why adolescents may engage in certain RVB over others, as well as how developmental factors are accounted for in legal socialization, are discussed.
Highlights
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Parental legitimacy serves as a mediator between parenting styles and rule-violating behavior, but only for amount of authoritative parenting.
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The degree to which parental legitimacy mediated the relation between authoritative parenting and behavior depended on the domain of the behavior.
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Parental legitimacy and change in parental legitimacy were both significant mediators of authoritative parenting and change in behavior over time.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by grant SES-0550145 and SES-1026803 from the National Science Foundation Law and Social Sciences Program. Stacey A. Jeleniewski is currently a Research Psychologist in the Office of Behavioral Safety Research within the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration at the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). Cesar J. Rebellon is currently a Professor in the Criminology, Law and Society Department at George Mason University.
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Cole, L.M., Maliakkal, N.T., Jeleniewski, S.A. et al. The Differential Effects of Parental Style on Parental Legitimacy and Domain Specific Adolescent Rule-Violating Behaviors. J Child Fam Stud 30, 1229–1246 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-01933-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-01933-3