Perceived parental behavioral control and psychological control in Chinese adolescents in Shanghai

Abstract

Chinese secondary school students in Shanghai (n=3022) responded to instruments measuring their subjective evaluation of parental behavioral control (including dimensions of parental knowledge, expectation, monitoring, discipline, and demandingness) and parental psychological control. As regards the interrelationships among different dimensions of parental behavioral control, different indicators of parental behavioral control were interrelated, and parental monitoring was the strongest predictor of parental knowledge. Different aspects of parental behavioral control were differentially related to parental psychological control. Results also show that paternal behavioral control was perceived to be significantly lower than maternal behavioral control in terms of different indicators of behavioral control. The theoretical and practical implications of the present findings are discussed.