The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between parenting styles and development of social skills during adolescence. A total of 193 high school students (ages 14-17) from two public schools in Porto Alegre answered a questionnaire to evaluate perception of performance in ten social skills, as well as, two scales (Responsiveness and Demandingness) allowing to classify parental attitudes in four types: authoritarian, authoritative, indulgent and negligent. Generally, the results indicate that the adolescents have the necessary social skills for the investigated situations. The skills for which they presented more difficulties were the following: beginning interpersonal relationship; asking for change on someone else's behavior and expressing feelings. Significant differences on the presence of social skills among the adolescents who identified their parents according to different parenting styles were not found. However, significant differences on variables related to social skills, as anxiety and aggressiveness, were noticed among these groups.
parenting styles; social skill; adolescence