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A Process Model of Parenting and Adolescents' Friendship Competence
Author(s) -
Cook Emily C.,
Buehler Cheryl,
Fletcher Anne C.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
social development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.078
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1467-9507
pISSN - 0961-205X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9507.2011.00642.x
Subject(s) - friendship , psychology , developmental psychology , hostility , competence (human resources) , social psychology
This study examined the prospective relationship between negative parenting behaviors and adolescents' friendship competence in a community sample of 416 two‐parent families in the Southeastern USA. Adolescents' externalizing problems and their emotional insecurity with parents were examined as mediators. Parents' psychological control was uniquely associated with adolescents' friendship competence. When both mediators were included in the same model, adolescents' perceptions of emotional insecurity in the parent–adolescent relationship fully mediated the association between parents' psychological control and adolescents' friendship competence. Parental hostility was associated with friendship competence indirectly through adolescents' emotional insecurity. Results contribute to identifying the mechanisms by which parenting affects youths' friendship competence, which is important in informing theory and practice regarding interpersonal relationships in adolescence.