Adolescents' and Their Mothers' Perceptions of Parental Management of Peer Relationships

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the relation of level and discrepancy in mothers' and adolescents' reports of parental management of peer relationships and parent–child conflict about peer relationships to mothers' and adolescent's reports of adolescents' drug use, delinquent behavior, and grade‐point‐average (GPA). An ethnically diverse sample of 121 seventh and eighth graders and their mothers completed questionnaires assessing the degree to which mothers managed peer relationships, parent–child conflict about peer relationships, and adolescents' drug use, delinquent behavior, and GPA. Differences in mothers' versus adolescents' reports were found for parental management of peers and conflict about peer relationships. Results suggest that both level and discrepancies between mothers' and adolescents' reports of parenting are important in predicting the outcome variables. Furthermore, the direction of the discrepancy was important in determining its relation to the outcome variables.