The present study was undertaken to determine the impact of different parenting styles on college students' adaptation to college. During the second week of college, 80 first-year students from two-parent families completed the Tests of Reactions and Adaptations to College, English version and the Parental Authority Questionnaire. Authoritative parenting was related to more positive characteristics in the students studied than either authoritarian or permissive parenting including having less anxiety, being more willing to seek help from peers and teachers, being better prepared for exams, and giving greater priority to their college studies. While permissive parenting was related to better emotional adjustment than authoritarian parenting, the behavioral and belief differences resulting from those two parenting styles were negligible. Comparing mothers and fathers, the fathers' parenting styles had a greater impact on the students than the mothers' parenting styles. The results of this research suggest that different parenting styles have impacted the development of students' individual dispositions and that those individual dispositions then impact on and are exhibited in the students' initial adjustment to college. (Contains 5 tables.)