This study examined adolescents' influence on family decision making. The Decision Making Survey (DMS), a self-administered questionnaire, was created to present a variety of the decisions made within the family. Items on the DMS were categorized into eight domains of family life (entertainment, purchases, family environment/daily living activities, school-related activities, rules and regulation, conservation, finances, and politics/religion/social activism) to determine in which domains adolescents and their mothers perceived the adolescents to have a greater level of influence. The items on the DMS were also classified into two focus categories: adolescent-centered, which related directly to the adolescent, and family-centered, which related to other family members or the family as a whole. Participants were 111 ninth graders and their mothers. They were primarily white and from an upper middle class background. Generally, adolescents and their mothers perceived the adolescents to have differential influence based on domain of family life. Both adolescents and their mothers also perceived the adolescents to have higher levels of control over adolescent-centered items such as school-related activities than over family-centered items such as finances and conservation. (Contains 19 references.) (Author/EV)