Adult generativity and the socialization of adolescents: Relations to mothers' and fathers' parenting beliefs, styles, and practices

Mothers, fathers, and their adolescent children participated in two studies investigating the relations between Erikson's concept of generativity in adulthood and patterns of parenting. Study 1 involved 77 mothers and 48 fathers of Ist-year university students; Study 2 was part of an investigation of socialization processes in 35 families with an adolescent, aged 14-18. Parental generative concern was assessed by the Loyola Generativity Scale (LGS) of McAdams and de St. Aubin (1992) in each study. In both studies, mothers demonstrated positive relations between scores on the LGS and an authoritative style of parenting, as well as between generativity and more positive, optimistic views of adolescent development. In Study 2, these more positive views in turn mediated some aspects of autonomy-fostering practices used with the adolescent. Variations in fathers' levels of generative concern were less consistently related to these indices of parenting, however.