Socialization in context: Connection, regulation, and autonomy in the family, school, and neighborhood, and with peers

This study investigated the relation to school grades, feelings of depression, and antisocial behavior of youth perceptions of three central dimensions of socialization (connection with significant others, regulation of behavior; and psychological autonomy) as they are experienced in four social contexts:family, school, neighborhood, and peers. Analyses of a random sample of 900 fifth- and eighth-grade youth included both descriptive accounts of youth experience in these contexts and tested for various models predicting independent and interactive effects among contexts an youth functioning. Findings showed that connection, regulation, and autonomy were meaningful dimensions of socialization experience in the four contexts, that family and peers were primary socialization domains, and that discrete aspects of youth functioning were related to specific contexts. There was some evidence that deficits in experience in one context can be compensated for by experience in other contexts.