Summary And Conceptions Of Parental Authority During Adolescence

In the article “Parenting styles and Conceptions of Parental Authority during Adolescence” by Judith G. Smetana she talks about the adolescence stage. She starts off the article by saying parental authority and parenting styles both contributed significantly to emotional autonomy and adolescent-parent conflict. Smetana says there are four parenting styles. First, authoritative parents which is both responsible and demanding. Second, authoritarian parents and they are demanding but not responsible. Third, permissive parents, who are responsive but not demanding. Fourth, rejecting-neglecting parents which means disengaged and neither demanding nor responsive.
Smetana goes into more detail about the four types of parenting styles. She says authoritative and authoritarian parents who are both highly demanding view themselves as having more legitimate right to regulate adolescents’ behavior. Since authoritative parenting encourages independence and highly responsive to their child’s needs, they should recognize that adolescents do have legitimate jurisdiction over some issues. Permission parents are expected to treat issues as personal prerogatives and authoritative parents are expected to grant the child more personal jurisdiction then
She found that parents over all and together viewed themselves as authoritarians. Mothers viewed themselves as more authoritative and fathers viewed themselves as more authoritarian. The analyses indicate that adolescents’ and parents’ view of parenting styles differ. 24% of adolescents and their mothers agreed in their assessment of mothers’ parenting styles. 32% of adolescents and their fathers agreed in their perceptions of fathers’ parenting styles. Over all adolescents agreed that fathers were authoritarian and mothers were more authoritative. 60% of adolescents viewed their mothers and fathers as having the same parenting