Developmental Psychology
Volume 52, Issue 3, 2016, Pages 484-495

Beliefs about parental authority legitimacy among refugee youth in jordan: Between- and Within-Person variations (Article)

Smetana J.G.* , Ahmad I. , Wray-Lake L.
  • a Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, University of Rochester, United States
  • b Department of Educational Psychology, University of Jordan, Jordan
  • c Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, University of Rochester, United States

Abstract

We examined Within- and Between-Person variations in parental legitimacy beliefs in a sample of 883 Arab refugee youth (Mage = 15.01 years, SD = 1.60), 277 Iraqis, 275 Syrians, and 331 Palestinians, in Amman, Jordan. Latent profile analyses of 22 belief items yielded 4 profiles of youth. The normative profile (67% of the sample, n = 585) most strongly endorsed parental authority legitimacy for prudential (risky) items, followed by moral, conventional, and then friendship items, with legitimacy lowest for personal items. The Low-Normative profile (10%, n = 85) followed a similar pattern, although legitimacy ratings were significantly lower than normative youth for most items, but not the personal ones. Rebellious youth (11%, n = 96) held deviant peer values; they endorsed less legitimacy, particularly for prudential and friendship items, than did youth in other profiles. Mixed youth (12%, n = 101) were similar to rebellious youth in some judgments and Low-Normative youth in others. Profile membership did not differ by adolescents' age or parental socioeconomic status but did differ by gender and national background. Youth fitting the normative (and to some extent, the Low-Normative) profile rated parents higher in support, behavioral control, and knowledge of adolescents' activities and lower in psychological Control-Disrespect and harsh punishment than did rebellious or mixed youth. Normative (and also, but less consistently, Low-Normative) youth reported better psychosocial adjustment across multiple measures than did rebellious and mixed youth. © 2015 American Psychological Association.

Author Keywords

Adjustment latent profile analysis Parental legitimacy beliefs Arab refugee youth Parenting

Index Keywords

cultural anthropology refugee Jordan Syrian Arab Republic human Refugees Iraq Arab ethnology Arabs Humans psychology Adolescent male female Parent-Child Relations Parenting peer group Syria Authoritarianism authority Analysis of Variance child parent relation Culture

Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84958876008&doi=10.1037%2fdev0000084&partnerID=40&md5=288d54b23b50c7d5fb4e4101dc82244f

DOI: 10.1037/dev0000084
ISSN: 00121649
Cited by: 2
Original Language: English