Parental psychological control is an emotionally manipulative parenting behavior that is used to control adolescents’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Such control is associated with problematic behaviors among adolescents. Less research has examined adolescents’ beliefs about parental motivations for using psychological control or the moderating role of such beliefs on associations between psychological control and adolescents’ problematic behaviors. We analyzed data from 406 US adolescents (ages 11–19) who completed school-based surveys (2020) assessing sociodemographics, parental psychological control, adolescents’ beliefs about parental motivations for using psychological control, and adolescents’ problematic behaviors (i.e., substance use, risky cyber behaviors, over- and under-eating behaviors, depressive and anxiety symptoms, delinquency, physical and relational aggression). Participants (Mage = 15.00 [SD = 1.64], 57.6% female, 85.7% White, 5.2% Black, 2.0% Asian, 1.5% Hispanic) who reported greater maternal and paternal psychological control were more likely to engage in a range of problematic behaviors. Adolescents most commonly indicated that their mothers and fathers used psychological control to keep them safe, to control their thoughts, feelings, or behaviors, and because they perceive it to be a normative parenting behavior. Adolescents’ beliefs about their mothers’ and fathers’ motivations for using psychological control were associated with adolescents’ problematic behaviors. These beliefs also moderated associations among psychological control and problematic behaviors. Findings suggest that psychological control is differentially associated with adolescents’ problematic behaviors based on their beliefs about why their parents engage in this control. Findings highlight the importance of considering adolescents as active participants in the parenting process. Findings provide potentially important individual-level targets for intervention.