The longitudinal associations between perceived maternal parenting style, mother–adolescent relationship quality and friendship quality: Does adolescents' gender matter?

Introduction Adolescents begin to expand their social networks beyond the family and turn increasingly to their peers for support. parenting practices present in the parent–child dyad are likely to extend to peer dyads. However, when considering the process involved in the transmission from parenting practices to friendships, the mediating role of parent–child relationships remains unclear. The current study was conducted to explore the mediating effect of mother–adolescent relationship quality between perceived maternal parenting practices (i.e., autonomy support and psychological control) and friendship quality in a three-wave longitudinal design and to examine whether adolescents’ gender moderates these associations. Methods A sample of 344 Chinese adolescents (12.01 to 15 years old at Wave 1, M = 13.08, SD = .39; 153 boys and 191 girls) filled out questionnaires on perceived maternal parenting practices, mother–adolescent relationship quality, and friendship quality, separately ...