1. The Effects of Early Parental Pressure on Later Adolescence Internalizing and Externalizing Problems
Kristin E. Gross & David E. Szwedo
James Madison University
Kristin E. Gross
Introduction
Measures
Parent’s Actual Influence on Teen’s No Sex (age 13) This questionnaire assessed the influence parents have on their teenager in five different domains. Additionally, parents rate how much they try to influence their teen’s behaviors using particular strategies and how much they believe they actually do influence their teen’s behaviors.
Peer Pressure on Teen to Further Sexual Experiences (age 17) Adolescents’ perception of the amount of pressure that they feel from their peers to behave in a certain way was assessed using the construct from Teens about Peer/ Parent Pressure. All items were scored on a four- point Likert scale; higher scores mean the teen feels more of pressure from their peers.
Psych Control v. Autonomy (age 13) Assessed using the Childhood Report of Parenting Behavior which asks about parents’ behaviors. The higher the scores are, the more control a parent exerts on their child.
Teen Communication With Mom (age 17) Self-report measure that assessed adolescents’ perceptions of their mother in terms of how well she serves as a source of psychological security. Three areas are assessed: mutual trust, quality of communication and alienation in relationship.
Social Avoidance and Distress in General (age 18) Assessed using the Social Anxiety Scale, a 22-item self-report scale with measures of negative evaluation and social avoidance.
Depression (age 18) Assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory, a self-report measure of depressive symptoms.
Aggression (age 18) Assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist, a 19-item peer-report externalizing scale.
Hostility (age 18) Assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist, a 19-item peer-report externalizing scale.
Children tend to feel driven to meet their parents’ high expectations, causing them to internalize a sense of responsibility to their parents and to externalize behaviors when the pressure becomes overwhelming (Chow & Chu, 2007).
As adolescents search for identities separate from those of their parents, they experiment with new identities by conforming to the different behaviors of their peers. Conformity may create problems when peers influence each other to participate in deviant activities such as pressure to engage in early sexual behavior (Allen, Moore, & Kuperminc, 1997).
By conforming to certain pressures, adolescents may also have significant problems interacting assertively. This may indicate a difficulty in establishing autonomy with others, which may ultimately lead to an increase in depressive symptoms (Allen, Porter, & McFarland, 2006).
Another concept that feeds into pressure is how the amount of parent control influences parent-child communication. Parents whose child-rearing style can be summed up as "it's my way or the highway" are more likely to raise disrespectful, delinquent children who do not see them as legitimate authority figures (Trinkner, Cohn, Rebellon, & Van Gundy, 2012).
The purpose of this study is to investigate more in depth how early life sexual and obedient pressures and communication from parents and peers affect future internalizing and externalizing problems.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figures 1. & 2. Heuristic representation of regression models predicting later social outcomes from earlier parent sexual pressure and parent control to later peer sexual pressure and communication with mom.
Figure 3. Interaction between parental pressure to limit sexual experiences and peer pressure to go further with sexual experiences predicting avoidance symptoms. The pattern of results suggests that individuals with low parent pressure and high peer pressure reported lower levels of avoidance.
Results
Correlations between primary variables are presented in Table 1 below.
Regression equations examined interactions between parent pressure on adolescents to limit sexual experiences and peer pressure on adolescents to further sexual experiences, and between parent control and parent-child communication as predictors of later social avoidance, depression, aggression and hostility. Analyses controlled for participant gender and household family income.
Analyses revealed that all externalizing outcome variables were not associated with any predictor variables (see Figure 1 & 2).
A significant interaction between parent pressure to limiting sexual experiences and peer pressure furthering sexual experiences predicted future social avoidance. Individuals that had low parent pressure to limit their sexual experiences and high peer pressure to further their sexual experiences had lower levels of avoidance (see Figure 3).
An interaction was also found between parent psychological control and teens’ communication with mom, such that low parental control and low communication with mom predicted adolescents having higher levels of depression (see Figure 4).
Figure 3
Figure 4. Interaction between parental control and communication with mom predicting depressive symptoms. The pattern of results suggests that individuals with low parent control and low communication with mom reported higher levels of depression.
Hypotheses
Parent pressure to limit adolescents’ sexual experiences while being peer pressured to further explore their sexuality will put adolescents’ at a higher risk of developing avoidance, depressive, aggressive and hostile symptoms.
More psychological control exerted by a parent on their child while also experiencing poor communication between a parent and child will result in a higher risk for the child to develop avoidance, depressive, aggressive and hostile symptoms.
Figure 4
Discussion
Table 1. Univariate statistics and inter-correlations between primary constructs
Method
Social Avoidance
Teens who do not experience pressure from their parents to limit their sexual experiences but experience pressure from their peers to further their sexual experiences tend to not avoid social situations in later life.
This finding may be because the teen feels like he/she is fitting in with the behaviors of their social circle.
Depression
Teens who receive less parental control and have less communication with their mother tend to experience more depression in later life.
This finding may be due to an individual feeling as though he/she has no guidance from an authority figure. Therefore, the teen may feel confused on what life direction to go in.
Aggression/Hostility
 A particularly interesting consideration from these findings is that individuals may experience internalized emotions but not external like aggression or hostility.
Mean (SD) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1. Gender
47%
(male) -
2. Income
43,618 (22,420)
-.11
Parent Pressure Teen To Limit Sexual Experiences
(13)
2.07
(.91)
.18*
-.28***
Peer Pressure Teen To Go Further With Sex (17)
3.71
(0.64)
.19**
-.08
.05
Psychological Control
15.59
(3.66)
.04
-.32***
.20**
-.15*
Teen Communication With Mom
(17)
31.82
(7.46)
.29***
-.09
.10
-.05
Social Avoidance and Distress in General
(18)
6.46
(2.67)
.02
.03
-.23**
-.18*
-.21**
Depression
5.03
(6.08)
.08
-.27**
-.17*
-.04
.37***
Aggression
2.98
(3.68)
-.03
.13
-.02
-.16
.34**
10. Hostility
1.13
(1.85)
.07
.11
.06
-.15
.39**
.88***
Participants
N = 184
Gender Race/ethnicity Income
86 males Caucasian Median = $40,000 - $59,000
98 females African American
24 Mixed/Other
Note. * p ≤ .05, ** p ≤ .01, *** p ≤ .001

2. Mean (SD) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1. Gender
47%
(male) -
2. Income
43,618 (22,420)
-.11
3. Mean Score of Actually No Sex (13)
2.07
(.91)
.18*
-.28***
4. Peer Pressure Teen To Go Further With Sex (17)
3.71
(0.64)
.19**
-.08
.05
5. Psych. Control vs. Autonomy (13)
15.59
(3.66)
.04
-.32***
.20**
-.15*
6. Teen Communication With Mom (17)
31.82
(7.46)
.29***
-.09
.10
-.05
7. Social Avoidance and Distress in General (18)
6.46
(2.67)
.02
.03
-.23**
-.18*
-.21**
8. Depression (18)
5.03
(6.08)
.08
-.27**
-.17*
-.04
.37***
9. Aggression (18)
2.98
(3.68)
-.03
.13
-.02
-.16
.34**
10. Hostility (18)
.07
.11
.06
-.15
.39**