Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Family Configuration (FC) is a key contextual factor in adolescence, yet its relationship with Parenting Styles (PS) in low-socioeconomic migrant families in Latin America remains underexamined. Building on the Family Stress Model (FSM; Conger et al., 2010), this study tests whether FC differences are associated with variations of PS affecting adolescents' cognitive and socio-emotional regulation through stress-related and social learning pathways. Ninety adolescents (ages 13–17) with migrant parents in economically vulnerable contexts in Argentina completed the Perceived Parenthood Scale (de la Iglesia, 2020). Chi-square analyses revealed a significant association between FC and PS (_(6, 89) = 14.29, p = .002, V = .20), with authoritarian parenting more frequent in single-parent families (marginal trend, p = .063). Stress-related demands in single-parent households may drive more rigid and control-oriented practices parenting, shaping adolescent self-regulation via modeling and reduced autonomy. This extends the FSM by highlighting cognitive pathways to an understudied population.