The Relationship of Psychosocial Maturity to Parenting Quality and Intellectual Ability for American and Korean Adolescents

Psychosocial maturity, gender, intellectual ability, and parenting practices were examined with a group of 344 Korean and 214 American adolescents. American adolescents reported greater self-reliance, work-orientation, and self-identity than did Korean adolescents. In addition, American girls described themselves as more mature in work orientation than did American boys, a trend reversed in the Korean culture. Intellectual ability was associated with adolescents' psychosocial maturity. Differences in parenting style were predictive of psychosocial maturity regardless of ethnic group membership. Authoritative parenting, compared to all other styles, was related to significantly higher means in adolescent maturity. Authoritarian and neglectful styles were almost always associated with lower psychosocial maturity, whereas permissive and mixed parenting styles were more advantageous than either authoritarian or neglectful parenting. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.