Quality parental decision making and distress

The purpose of this study was to test three hypotheses in the context of parenting an adolescent: (1) socioeconomic status (SES), parental gender, marital status, and age of parent will be predictors of quality decision-making for parents of adolescents; (2) as predispositional and situational distress increase, quality decision making among these parents will decrease; and (3) predispositional distress will be as strong a predictor for quality decision making as situational distress. The sample included 123 parents of adolescents ages 13 to 19 years. SES was the only significant predictor (11%) for parental decision making; the higher the SES, the more quality in decision making reported. Moderate negative correlations were obtained between predispositional distress and quality decision making and situational distress and quality decision making. Both predispositional distress and situational distress contributed equally as predictors of quality decision making.