Adolescents are involved in the difficult task of identifying themselves and making important life decisions. (Smits, Soenens, Vansteenkiste, Luyckx and Goossens, 2010). Parental support seems to greatly help adolescents in their identity formation process. Two theories that have been used in research to examine adolescent identity are adolescent psychosocial development and Bandura's social learning theory. Psychosocial development as theorized by Erikson involves eight stages through which a healthy developing human being should move from childhood to late adulthood (Kail and Cavanaugh, 2010). Adolescents fall into the fifth stage, identity and role confusion, in which the question “Who am I” attempts to be answered. When trying to find the answer to this question, adolescents tend to look to groups in which they feel included. Social learning theory focuses on learning that occurs in a social context (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2010). Bandura's theory considers that people learn from each other, including concepts such as observational learning, imitation, and modeling (Kail and Cavanaugh, 2010). These two theories will serve as a framework for this study. Both emphasize the importance of environmental influences as a basis for understanding the relationship between parents and adolescents. In the early 1960s, psychologist Diana Baumrind conducted a study in which she suggested that the majority of parents display one of four types of parenting styles (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2010). The parenting style construct is used to capture normal variations in parents' attempts to control and socialize their children (Darling, 1999). Two points are essential to understanding this definition. First, parenting style is thought to describe...... middle of paper...... 2006). Patterns of competence and adjustment among adolescents from authoritarian, authoritarian, indulgent, and neglectful homes: A replication in a sample of serious juvenile delinquents. Journal of Adolescence Research, 16(1), 47-58. doi:10.1111/j.1532-7795.2006.00119.xVieno, A., Nation, M., Pastore, M., & Santinello, M. (2009). Parenting and antisocial behavior: A model of the relationship between adolescent self-disclosure, parental closeness, parental control, and adolescent antisocial behavior. Developmental Psychology, 45(6), 1509-1519. doi:10.1037/a0016929Smits, I., Soenens, B., Vansteenkiste, M., Luyckx, K., & Goossens, L. (2010). Why do adolescents collect information or stick to parental standards? Examining autonomous and controlled motivations behind adolescent identity style. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39(11), 1343-1356. Taken from EBSCOhost.