The Influence of Family Regulation, Connection, and Psychological Autonomy on Six Measures of Adolescent Functioning

Abstract

This study disaggregated parenting styles into three socialization dimensions: connection/involvement, regulation, and psychological autonomy. Six dependent variables were used (grades and educational expectations, psychological and somatic symptoms, and delinquent acts and substance use), and the three socialization measures were associated individually with all six outcomes. When multiple regressions included all three socialization measures simultaneously, connection/involvement was associated positively with educational outcomes, whereas regulation andpsychological autonomy were associated significantly with all six outcomes in the three domains. For deviance, regulation appeared to be the strongest socialization dimension. For health, psychological autonomy was the strongest. Educational outcomes were more balanced among the three socialization measures, with all three contributing positively to these outcomes. Using instrumental variables allowed the regression models to isolate the direction of causality from the socialization variables to the six outcomes. The impact of each socialization dimension was stable across allfour ethnic groups and both genders.