Table of Contents

ABSTRACT

Although studies generally show that parental behavioral control is positively related to positive adolescent development but negatively related to problem adolescent development, few Chinese studies employed large samples and multiple measures of parental behavioral control and adolescent developmental outcomes in one single study. In this study, Hong Kong secondary school students (N = 2,474) responded to measures of perceived paternal and maternal behavioral control and their own developmental outcomes indexed by negative and positive adolescent development outcomes. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed several observations. First, “parental behavioral control” latent variable positively predicted “adolescent developmental outcome” latent variable. Second, when perceived paternal and maternal behavioral control on the two latent outcome variables (positive development outcome and problem development outcome) were separately analyzed, all paths were significant in the predicted directions. Third, when the separate effects of paternal and maternal behavioral control on the two latent outcome measures were included in a single model, maternal behavioral control negatively predicted both latent outcome measures, whereas paternal behavioral control only predicted adolescent positive development outcome. This pioneer study suggests the need to separately examine the influence of paternal and maternal behavioral control on the positive and negative outcomes of adolescent development.

Keywords: Parental behavioral control, adolescent development, moral character, prosocial behavior, materialism, egocentrism, Hong Kong