Profiles of Parenting Behaviors: Associations with Adolescents’ Problematic Outcomes

Research has consistently found evidence for four parenting styles that vary along the dimensions of warmth/responsiveness and control/demandingness. Although these parenting styles have important implications for youth development, less research has explored how parents of adolescents vary in their use of subtypes of warmth and control, as well as negative aspects of parenting. The current study utilized a person-centered approach to examine adolescents’ report of their parents’ engagement in six behaviors (i.e., rules, solicitation, psychological control, problem communication, open communication, warmth). Additionally, the current study examined whether profiles of perceived parenting behaviors are differentially associated with adolescents’ substance use, risky cyber behaviors, over-eating behaviors, under-eating behaviors, and depressive symptoms. Data were collected from 161 adolescents in the US ( M age = 14.42, SD = 1.73, range = 12–18; 80.7% Caucasian; 59.6% female) who completed questionnaires regarding parenting behaviors and problematic outcomes. Latent profile analyses indicated that adolescents perceived their parents as displaying five unique profiles of parenting behaviors (i.e., Problematic, Controlling, Inconsistent, Warm and Open, Authoritative), which were uniquely associated with adolescents’ problematic outcomes. Findings urge researchers to consider how multiple aspects of parental warmth/responsiveness and control/demandingness along with negative parenting behaviors co-occur among parents of adolescents and differentially relate to developmental outcomes. When examining adolescents’ perceived parenting profiles using a wider range of parenting behaviors, findings suggest that parenting styles are more nuanced than previous research has suggested. Further, these nuanced profiles have important implications for adolescents’ problematic outcomes.