Adolescent involvement in discipline decision making.
This study examined the influence of (a) low, medium, or high adolescent involvement (degree to which adolescent input was solicited in determining consequence) in discipline decisions and (b) parental versus adolescent focus of impact of behavior problem (parent emphasized inconvenience to either self or adolescent). After viewing videotaped vignettes of disciplinary interactions, high school students (N = 95) rated how close they would feel toward the parent, how fair they felt the intervention was, and the degree to which they would feel respected by the parent. Adolescents also provided ratings of anger and self-esteem, as well as how willing they would be to accept/abide by the consequences. Overall, significantly more favorable ratings were found for interactions with (a) higher levels of invited adolescent involvement and (b) the parent as the focus of impact. Findings suggest the importance of encouraging adolescent involvement in discipline and the value of refraining from emphasizing adverse impact to adolescent.