Influence of parenting style and gender disparity on adolescent problem behaviors

Objective To examine the influence of parenting style and gender disparity on adolescent problem behaviors.Methods With random cluster sampling,1387 adolescents aged 10-18 years were selected from 18 districts of Beijing municipality and a questionnaire survey was conducted among the adolescents and their parents selected from September 2007 to April 2008.Results The male adolescents had a significantly higher score for problem behaviors than the female adolescents(13.29±11.39 vs.11.86±9.91)(t=2.92,P<0.01).Compared to the male adolescents,the female adolescents had significantly higher scores for the four domains of parenting style of maternal warmth (25.12±5.91 vs.23.86±6.11),maternal monitoring (23.37±6.65 vs.22.30±6.78),fatherly warmth(25.37±4.91 vs.23.53±5.40),and fatherly monitoring(22.33±6.54 vs.20.81±6.50)(all P<0.01).Adolescents' problem behaviors were significantly correlated reveresely with the four domains of parenting style of maternal warmth(r=-0.27,P<0.01),maternal monitoring(r=-0.31,P<0.01),fatherly warmth(r=-0.28,P<0.01),and fatherly monitoring(r=-0.30,P<0.01).No moderating effect of gender disparity on the relationship between parenting style and problem behaviors was observed among the adolescents(P>0.05).Conclusion The same parental attention and concern should be paid to adolescent boys as to the girls to reduce the occurrence of problem behaviors among the boys.