Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to find out the bases of social power in the parent-adolescent relationship. The subjects were three hundred and seven male and female students in two private universities. They evaluated how strongly they thought that their parents had each of six bases of social power (referent, expert, legitimate, reward, coercive, and attraction power), and how strongly they would obey their parents' influences in relation to the personal, familial, and social matters. The main findings were as follows: 1) The factor analysis based on the bases of social power revealed the following. They were termed "referent-expert power", "reward-coercive power", and "attraction power". 2) According to the path analysis, the paths which ran from "referent expert power" and "attraction power" to "the obedience to the parents' influences" had significant path coefficients. This result means that an adolescent tends to obey his parents when he identifies with them, perceives their expertness, and likes them.
