Parents may also curtail adolescents’ risky behavior through more indirect channels: specifically, when they instill values in their children and cultivate a sense of personal control in children. Parents then do not have to actively control adolescents if they have helped adolescents learn how to control themselves (Repetti et al. 2002). Personal control has not been studied as much as social control, but it does have empirical support. For example, a three-generational study of families found that substance use is transmitted across generations in part because it leads to problematic parenting behaviors that then disrupt the development of inhibitory control in young people (Pears et al. 2007). Importantly, personal control provides a conceptual lens through which many empirical patterns discussed thus far—such as the link between parental support and adolescents’ healthier behavior—can be interpreted. It also points to long-term life course implications in that early parenting may affect later health behavior by shaping personality and social orientations.
