The Relationship between Parenting Styles, Sons' Self-Restraint, and Peer Relations in Early Adolescence

Self-restraint was studied as a social competency that may partly explain the link between parenting techniques and early adolescent boys' relationships with peers. Information on parenting styles and family social support was obtained from 92 mothers, 67 fathers, and 92 sixth-grade boys. Classroom teachers rated boys' self-restraint and classmates nominated boys they liked most and liked least. Correlations and regression analyses linked sons' self-restraint to both parenting and peer relations. Parenting and social support from families also contributed unique variance to sons `peer relations, over and above their contribution to sons' self-restraint. Specifically, parental child-centeredness was a significant, positive predictor of being liked by peers, whereas parental harsh discipline was a significant, positive predictor of social impact on peers. In contrast to other work in this area, these findings were obtained using separate informants to assess mothers' and fathers' child-rearing styles, boys' self-restraint, and peer relations.