Parents, siblings, psychological control, and adolescent adjustment

The relations between parents' and siblings' psychological control and adolescent adjustment (i.e., self-esteem and problems of internalization and externalization) were assessed over a 3 year period for 388 adolescents (7th graders at Year 1). Correlational and regression analyses were used to assess the contemporaneous and lagged associations between these variables. Patterns of association between psychological control and adolescent adjustment were consistent across family members. Results indicated that psychological control both by parents and by siblings contributes to increases in adolescents' adjustment problems and to diminished self-confidence. Relations to previous research on parents' behavior and adolescent adjustment, as well as implications for future research, are discussed.