Adolescent adjustment and patterns of parents' behaviors in early and middle adolescence

In this study, we identified unique clusters of parenting behaviors based on parents' school involvement, community involvement, rule-setting, and cognitive stimulation with data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics - Child Development Supplement. In early (n=668) and middle adolescence (n=634), parents who provided high cognitive stimulation (i.e., cognitive enrichment parents) or engaged in all parenting behaviors (i.e., engaged parents) had the highest family income, parent education, and percentage of European Americans. Adolescents of cognitive enrichment or engaged parents often evidenced the highest academic and social adjustment. Adolescents whose parents set a large number of rules (i.e., "Rule setters") or were also heavily involved in the community (i.e., the "Managers" cluster) had the lowest adjustment.