1 General introduction 11 theorized consequences of these four parenting dimensions in terms of adolescents’ functioning and current empirical patterns are described below. Warmth (also known as emotional support) is one of the most frequently studied dimensions of parenting. Parental warmth involves practices such as providing affection, intimacy, security, and responding to children’s emotional needs (Furman & Buhrmester, 1985; Soenens et al., 2017). According to the interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory (IPARTheory; Rohner, 2016) and the self-determination theory (SDT; Ryan & Deci, 2000; Soenens et al., 2019), experiencing parental warmth can satisfy the universal need to feel loved and appreciated by close others (i.e., called “need for relatedness” by the SDT), which is believed to promote psychosocial functioning, such as a better self-esteem. Meta-analytic work has indicated that parental warmth indeed correlates with many domains of adolescent functioning at the group level. Specifically, a large body of work has established that adolescents from families with higher levels of parental warmth show, on average, fewer internalizing (e.g., McLeod, Wood et al., 2007; Pinquart, 2017b; Yap et al., 2014) and externalizing problems (Hoeve et al., 2009; Pinquart, 2017a; Yap et al., 2017) than adolescents from families with lower levels of parental warmth. Whether parental warmth, and all other parenting dimensions described below, exhibits similar associations with adolescent functioning within families is yet to be established (for a systematic review, see Chapter 2; Boele et al., 2020). The second parenting dimension is autonomy support, which includes respecting adolescents’ individuality by recognizing and accepting their perspectives, giving choices, explaining new rules, and encouraging initiative-taking (Soenens et al., 2019). According to the self-determination theory, experiencing autonomy-supportive parenting can satisfy the universal human need for autonomy, which is thought to foster adolescents’ psychosocial functioning (Ryan & Deci, 2000; Soenens et al., 2019). Although parental autonomy support has not gained as much attention as parental warmth, several metaanalyses have similarly indicated that higher levels of autonomy support relate to lower levels of internalizing (McLeod, Weisz, et al., 2007; Pinquart, 2017b) and externalizing problems in adolescence at the group level (Pinquart, 2017a). In other words, adolescents from families who experience more parental autonomy support show, on average, better psychosocial functioning than adolescents whose parents are less autonomy supportive. In addition to parental warmth and autonomy support, providing structure and setting boundaries seems key. This third parenting dimension is behavioral control, involving practices to supervise and regulate adolescents’ behavior, such as rule setting and
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