Chinese parenting and adolescents susceptibility to peer pressure: A multi-dimensional approach

This study examined the relationships between parenting and adolescents ' susceptibility to peer pressure in a Chinese society. The subjects were 1,889 ninth graders in Hong Kong. They completed a parenting questionnaire and a peer susceptibility questionnaire. The results showed that the more the adolescents perceived monitoring, supportiveness, and autonomy granting from their parents, the less they would report that they yielded to peer pressure for deviant behaviors. Interaction effects were found between autonomy granting and the other two parenting dimensions. With low autonomy granting, high monitoring and supportiveness were not associated with low susceptibility to peer pressure. The implications of the results were discussed with reference to the multidimensional framework of parenting styles and the paradox of authoritarian parenting in Asian families. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)(journal abstract