Journal of Child and Adolescent Behavior
Open Access

Research Article

Parental Behavioral Control as a Moderator between Close Friend Support and Conduct Problems

Minnesota State University, 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, USA

*Corresponding Author:

Daniel Houlihan
Minnesota State University, Mankato
23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, USA
Tel: 507-389-6308
Fax: 507-389-5831
E-mail: daniel.houlihan@mnsu.edu

Received Date: February 20, 2013; Accepted Date: April 15, 2013; Published Date: April 19, 2013

Citation: Watson GC, Sifers SK, Houlihan D (2013) Parental Behavioral Control as a Moderator between Close Friend Support and Conduct Problems. J Child Adolesc Behav 1:105. doi:10.4172/2375-4494.1000105

Copyright: © 2013 Watson GC, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Objective: Potential moderating effects between parental control and close friend support on youth conduct problems have not been investigated. Goals of this study were to investigate for a possible curvilinear relationship between parental behavioral control and child conduct issues, as well as the potential that parental control will moderate the relationship between friend support and those behaviors.

Design: Surveyed 101 youth and their parents in a small Midwestern United States metropolitan area.

Results: Through hierarchical regression, the current study shows a curvilinear main effect for parent control on conduct problems. Additionally, close friend support is a protective agent only for those youth in families with high and medium levels of parental control, and a risk factor for children from families with low parental control.

Conclusion: Moderate levels of parental control are ideal and low levels of parental control are particularly problematic for youth who are highly engaged with peers.

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