Parenting styles in adolescence: The role of warmth, strictness, and psychological autonomy granting in influencing collective self-esteem and expectations for the future

A large corpus of evidence shows the effectiveness of authoritative parenting, in comparison with authoritarian, neglectful, and indulgent educational styles, on adolescents’ personal and social development. However, few studies have examined the influence of authoritative parenting on adolescents’ social identity and future plans. In this contribution (N = 400) we examined the role of warmth, strictness, and autonomy granting – the core dimensions of parenting– in influencing adolescents’ social identity, measured as family collective self-esteem, and expectations for the future, in terms of stable intimate relationships and fulfillment of personal goals. We also tested the role of family collective self-esteem in mediating the influence of parenting style dimensions on expectations for the future. Besides confirming that authoritative parenting leads to better outcomes than the other educational styles, this study sheds light for the first time on the distinct contribution of different parenting dimensions on adolescents’ social identity and expectations for the future.