| Abstract: | The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between three maternal variables; marital adjustment, depression, and parenting style and four measures of adjustment in adolescents: self-esteem, attitude toward parents, locus of control, and level of aspiration. Subjects for the study were 150 pairs of mothers and their adolescent children (ages 12-18 years) who participated in the nationwide standardization of the Behavioral Assessment System for Children (BASC) (Reynolds & Kamphaus, 1992). It was hypothesized that maternal depression would have direct negative effects upon the four measures of adolescent outcome as well as indirectly through parenting style and marital adjustment. Parenting styles characterized as more undemocratic and authoritarian were hypothesized to have an detrimental effect on an adolescent's level of aspiration, mediated through adolescent attitude toward parent. Likewise, lower levels of marital adjustment were also predicted to have an indirect, negative influence on adolescent level of aspiration as mediated through adolescent attitude toward parent. An internal locus of control in adolescents and more positive levels of adolescent self-esteem were both hypothesized to have a direct, positive effect on adolescent level of aspiration. Additionally an internal locus of control was believed to have a further beneficial effect upon level of aspiration indirectly through self-esteem. Using path analytic techniques, the direct and indirect effects were calculated for each of these relationships. Lower levels of maternal depression were found to be predictive of higher adolescent aspiration. An internal locus of control and positive self-esteem also predicted higher levels of adolescent aspiration. An internal locus of control also had a positive, indirect effect on adolescent level of aspiration through adolescent self-esteem. An authoritarian, undemocratic parenting style was found to be predictive of higher adolescent self-esteem among girls. There was no significant relationship between maternal parenting style and self-esteem among boys. |
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