This article argues for the value in socialization research of focusing explicitly on the construct of parental psychological control of children--control that constrains, invalidates, and manipulates children's psychological and emotional experience and expression. The article traces the history of the construct and distinguishes psychological control theoretically and empirically from more behaviorally oriented control. 2 new measures of psychological control are developed. Data from 3 separate studies are presented which indicate that psychological control can be adequately measured across demographically varied samples and mode of measurement. In both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses, psychological control, particularly as perceived by preadolescents and adolescents, is consistently predictive of youth internalized problems (depression) and, in some cases, externalized problems (delinquency). In contrast, behavioral control is related primarily to externalized problems.

This article argues for the value in socialization research of focusing explicitly on the construct of parental psychological control of children--control that constrains, invalidates, and manipulates children's psychological and emotional experience and expression. The article traces the history of the construct and distinguishes psychological control theoretically and empirically from more behaviorally oriented control. 2 new measures of psychological control are developed. Data from 3 separate studies are presented which indicate that psychological control can be adequately measured across demographically varied samples and mode of measurement. In both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses, psychological control, particularly as perceived by preadolescents and adolescents, is consistently predictive of youth internalized problems (depression) and, in some cases, externalized problems (delinquency). In contrast, behavioral control is related primarily to externalized problems.

During the past decade, there has been a pronounced increase in scientific attention to the construct of parental psychological control of children and adolescents. The increase began when Laurence Steinberg (1990;Steinberg, Elmen, & Mounts, 1989) reminded the field of important distinctions between this form of control and other, more behaviorally focused, forms of parental control. Since that time there has been a steady focus on the construct, and the attention continues to increase. During this period, findings of numerous studies have consistently demonstrated that parental psychological control is a meaningful aspect of the parent-child relationship that is negatively associated with a variety of aspects of healthy child development. As this volume shows, the research literature on psychological control is expanding to incorporate a variety of methodologies for indexing psychological control, to define its developmental parameters, to understand its position among other family process variables, to investigate its antecedents, and to assess its relevance across cultures.

In this study, psychological control of children was conceptually and empirically distinguished from behavioral control. Further, it was demonstrated as hypothesized that psychological control was more predictive of adolescent internalized problems, and that behavioral control was more predictive of externalized problems. Subjects were 473 fifth-, eighth-, and tenth-grade males and females from a Southern suburb. Control was measured by the Child Report of Parent Behavior Inventory and the Colorado Self-Report of Family Functioning Inventory. Problem behaviors were measured with the Child Behavior Checklist. First- and second-order factor analyses discriminated psychological and behavioral control, and structural equation analyses demonstrated the differential prediction of internalized and externalized problems. These last analyses were conducted using youth-reported data and validated using a subsample of 227 mother-youth pairs.

This study assessed patterns of change in perceived school and youth functioning, and the extent to which perceived change in the school environment predicted changed youth functioning, across four consecutive grade transitions, two of which involved the transition to a new school. Youth reported decreased quality of the school environment and decreased academic/personal/interpersonal functioning at every grade transition. This pattern was most pronounced at the transition from sixth to seventh grade, a transition that did not correspond to the transition to middle school but did correspond to the move from small family pods during the first year of middle school to the more typical middle school environment in the eighth grade. Analyses revealed that perceived change in several elements of the school environment (most strongly, perceived change in teacher support) did significantly explain changes in levels of student academic, personal, and interpersonal functioning.