The role of intrusive parenting in the relationship between peer management strategies and peer affiliation

The role of intrusive (i.e., psychologically controlling) parenting in the relationship between three peer management strategies (prohibiting, guiding, supporting) and adolescents' peer deviant behavior and peer group belongingness was examined. Three important findings emerged. First, consistent with previous research, prohibiting was positively related to adolescents' affiliations with deviant friends, whereas support was positively related to a sense of group belongingness. Guiding was negatively related to group belongingness. Second, the direct effect of prohibiting on adolescents' affiliations with deviant friends was substantially accounted for by perceived parental psychological control. Third, the effect of guiding was moderated by perceived psychological control, so that it negatively predicted a sense of group belongingness only under conditions of high psychological control. The findings indicate that parental peer management strategies are associated with lower deviant and more positive peer affiliations, if they are not perceived as intruding upon adolescents' private world.