Parental management of adolescent peer relationships in context: the role of parenting style

Abstract

Three hundred 9th-graders and their best friends participated in this short-term longitudinal study. Confirmatory factor analysis of the Parental Management of Peers Inventory (N. Mounts, 2000) suggested that the 4-factor structure provided a good fit to the data. Significant differences in adolescents' perceptions of parental management of peers occurred across 4 parenting style groups. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relation among 5 aspects of parental management of peers and adolescents' Time 1 drug use, friends' Time 1 drug use, and adolescents' Time 2 drug use. The parental management styles of monitoring, guiding, prohibiting, and supporting all had significant paths in the model, whereas neutrality was not significant. Multiple group comparisons were used to examine whether parenting style moderates the relation between parental management of peers and the drug use outcomes. Parenting style functioned as a moderator for 7 of the paths in the model.