This paper examines ethnic differences in the affective meaning of parental control in a sample of 288 adolescents. Participants rated their affective reaction to a sample of parental control behaviors. Principal components analyses of these affective ratings found general support for three broad dimensions (hurt/anger, love/concern, and control/manipulation) of feelings associated with these behaviors. As predicted, results found parenting behaviors to be associated with different levels of these feelings for children of different ethnic backgrounds. This may in part explain inconsistent findings researchers have noted when studying ethnic differences in the effect of parental control.