The Effect of Parenting on Adolescent Susceptibility to Peer Influence: Mediating Role of Self-Esteem

Adolescents are often susceptible to the opinions of peers, such as their friends, activity partners and co-workers, when making consumption decisions in daily life. Based on the developmental psychology literature, we develop an integrative model of adolescent susceptibility to peer influence that includes parenting strategies (parental responsiveness and parental psychological control) as driver, adolescents’ self-esteem as mediator, and stage at adolescence as moderator of susceptibility to peer influence. The overarching finding in our studies is that responsive parenting decreases susceptibility by bolstering adolescents’ self-esteem, while psychologically controlling parenting increases susceptibility without influencing adolescents’ self-esteem. This is especially true for children at their mid- and late-adolescence stages. We validate our results using cross-sectional and longitudinal data, as well as data gathered from multiple informants within a family (i.e., father, mother, and adolescent).

Citation:

Zhiyong Yang, Ashesh Mukherjee, and Michel Laroche (2009) ,"The Effect of Parenting on Adolescent Susceptibility to Peer Influence: Mediating Role of Self-Esteem", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 36, eds. Ann L. McGill and Sharon Shavitt, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 534-534.