This study examined within-society variability in attitudes and practices in handling authority issues among a sample of 694 adolescents and their parents residing in southern China. Major patterns of parental attitudes towards decision authority, parenting practices, adolescent attitudes towards decision authority, and reasons for adolescent conformity across the seven issues (dating, internet café, homework, going out, chores, drugs, and peers) were identified via latent class analysis. Configural frequency analysis suggested that parent and adolescent subgroups represented by compatible patterns tended to go together, and compatible parent-child combinations tended to be associated with less disagreement. In addition, within-society variability was also explored from the perspective of social class variability. Finally, adolescent academic achievement was only predicted by child characteristics, but not parental characteristics, and adolescent social competence was barely predicted by indicators of the attitudes and behaviors displayed in parent-child relationships when handling authority issues. Findings were discussed in reference to within-society variability in cultural beliefs and practices represented in everyday lives
