African American Adolescents’ And Parents’ Changing Conceptions of Parental Authority Judith Smetana Hugh F. Crean Nicole Campione-Barr Presented at SRCD, 2003 University of Rochester

Domains of Parental Authority l Moral: Acts that affect others’ rights or welfare l Social-Conventional: Arbitrary, agreed-on, contextual norms (like etiquette & manners) that structure social interactions l Prudential: Acts pertaining to comfort, safety, harm to the self l Personal : Preferences or choices that only affect the actor (e.g., privacy, control over one’s body) l Multifaceted/ Friendship : Acts that have overlapping conventional and personal components (e.g. the state of the teen’s room) or conventional, personal, & psychological components

Parental Authority Stimulus Items l Moral - breaking promises, lying to parents, hitting siblings, stealing money Conventional - cursing, using bad manners, talking back, not doing chores l Prudential - drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, doing drugs l Personal- sleeping late on weekends, how to spend allowance money, choosing own clothes or hairstyles l Multifaceted - not cleaning bedroom, wearing multiple earrings, watching cable TV, staying out late Friendship - seeing friends that parents don’t like, doing things with friends rather than parents, when to start dating

Growth Curve Modeling o Multilevel models of change run using SEM to compare mothers’ & adolescents’ trajectories of change o Slope indicators constrained to 0, 2, 5 o Models run first with intercepts (& slopes) unconstrained & then again constraining the intercepts (& slopes) to be equal o If the fit does not change significantly between the 2 models, then such constraints do not significantly deteriorate the overall fit of the model (e.g. mothers and adolescents do not differ significantly )

Changes in Legitimate Parental Authority for Moral Issues

Changes in Legitimate Parental Authority for Conventional Issues

Changes in Legitimate Parental Authority for Prudential Issues

Moral, Conventional, & Prudential Models  2df  2 Diffdf Diffp RMSEA Moral Unconstrained Model < Intercepts Constrained <.01 Slopes Constrained ns Conventional Unconstrained Model < Intercepts Constrained <.01 Slopes Constrained ns Prudential Unconstrained Model < Intercepts Constrained <.01

Significant Predictors of Intercepts. Adolescent Gender  ’s Mothers’ Education  s Moral Conventional Personal

Changes in Legitimate Parental Authority for Personal Issues

Model for Personal Issues  2df  2 Diffdf Diff p RMSEA Unconstrained Model < Intercepts Constrained <.001 Slopes Constrained ns

Changes in Legitimate Parental Authority for Multifaceted Issues

Changes in Legitimate Parental Authority for Friendship Issues

Multifaceted and Friendship Models  2df  2 Diffdf Diff p RMSEA Multifaceted Issues Unconstrained Model < Intercepts Constrained <.001 Slopes Constrained ns Friendship Issues Unconstrained Model ns 0.05 Intercepts Constrained <.001 Slopes Constrained ns

Summary l African American mothers & teens affirmed parents’ legitimate authority to regulate moral, conventional, & prudential issues l African American teens rejected parents’ legitimate authority to regulate personal issues, while mothers’ authority over personal issues declined (from strongly equivocally affirming their authority) l Changes (declines) in judgments of parental authority were primarily over multifaceted & friendship issues

Measures of Adolescent Adjustment l Problem Behavior Survey (Mason et al., 1996) » 19 items assessed on 7-point Likert scales » including drug & alcohol use, gang activity, vandalism, stealing, truancy, fighting » alpha =.72 l Depressed Mood (CES-D, Radloff, 1977) » 20 items assessed on 4-point Likert scales » alpha =.89

Problem Behavior & Depressed Mood Regressed on Parental Authority Concepts