Parenting With Purpose: Influences of Promotion and Prevention Strategies on Black Adolescents' Developmental Outcomes

• In Event: Poster Session 5
  In Poster Session: Social and Cultural Processes in Motivation Research

Abstract

A family management perspective posits two distinct purposes for parent strategies to effect positive adolescent development: promotion strategies fostering adolescents’ skills and prevention strategies precluding negative experiences. To this end, we examined the ways Black parents’ (n=879) promotion and prevention strategies each predict to Black adolescents’ academic, motivational, and psychological well-being across middle school. Regression analyses revealed positive associations between promotion strategies and adolescents’ academic self-concept and educational expectations. However, contrary to predictions, prevention strategies were associated with lower grades and higher perceptions of negative life outcomes. The present study provides support for the need to contextualize strategies to parents’ purposes. Further analyses need to examine how targets of promotion and prevention strategies and parent-child relationship quality moderate these associations.

Authors

• Nestor Tulagan, University of California - Irvine

• Jacquelynne Eccles, University of California - Irvine