Adolescent Health-Risk Behaviors

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health (Add Health), this study examined the effects of different parenting styles and race on adolescent health-risk behaviors. We compared each of the four parenting styles developed by Diana Baumrind to determine how they affect adolescent health-risk behaviors (i.e., cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana). The results indicated that regardless of race, adolescents who perceived that their parents used an authoritative parenting style were less likely to engage in health-risk behaviors than those who perceived that their parents used authoritarian, permissive, and uninvolved parenting styles. These findings have implications for parenting education programs.