A Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Life Satisfaction and Parenting

This study examined longitudinal relationships between adolescent life satisfaction (LS) and perceived parental support, parental behavioral control, and parental autonomy granting. A total of 819 students in grades 6-12 completed the Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (Huebner 1991), the Family Support Scale (FSS; Wills and Clearly 1996), and the Parental Control and Parental Autonomy Granting subscales of the Authoritative Parenting Measure (APM; Lamborn et al. 1991) on two occasions, 1 year apart. Analyses revealed that none of the parenting behaviors at Time 1 predicted changes in LS at Time 2. Additionally, LS at Time 1 did not predict changes in parental control or autonomy granting at Time 2, but did predict changes in parental support at Time 2. Implications and future research needs are discussed.