Introduction to special issue. Careful conversations: adolescents managing their parents' access to information

What is Parental Monitoring?

Parental monitoring is a construct of longstanding interest in multiple fields-but what is it? This paper makes two contributions to the ongoing debate. First, we review how the published literature has defined and operationalized parental monitoring. We show that the monitoring construct has often been defined in an indirect and nonspecific fashion and measured using instruments that vary widely in conceptual content. The result has been a disjointed empirical literature that cannot accurately be described as the unified study of a single construct nor is achieving a cumulative scientific character. Second, we offer a new formulation of the monitoring construct intended to remedy this situation. We define parental monitoring as the set of all behaviors performed by caregivers with the goal of acquiring information about the youth's activities and life. We introduce a taxonomy identifying 5 distinct types of monitoring behaviors (Types 1-5), with each behavior varying along five dimensions (performer, target, frequency, context, style). We distinguish parental monitoring from 16 other parenting constructs it is often conflated with and position monitoring as one element within the broader parent-youth monitoring process: the continuous, dyadic interplay between caregivers and youth as they navigate caregivers attempts' to monitor youth. By offering an explicit and detailed conceptualization of monitoring, we aim to foster more rigorous and impactful research in this area.

Adolescent social withdrawal, parental psychological control, and parental knowledge across seven years: A developmental cascade model

INTRODUCTION

Social withdrawal can be problematic for adolescents, increasing the risk of poor self-efficacy, self-esteem, and academic achievement, and increased levels of depression and anxiety. This prospective study follows students across adolescence, investigating links between social withdrawal and two types of parenting hypothesized to impact or be reactive to changes in social withdrawal.

METHODS

Adolescent social withdrawal and parenting were assessed across seven years in a U.S. sample, beginning when students were in 6th grade and ending in 12th grade. The sample consisted of 534 adolescents (260 girls and 274 boys, 82% Euro- and 16% African-American). Social withdrawal was assessed in four grades using at least two informants (teachers, mothers, and/or adolescents). Mothers' and fathers' psychological control and monitoring-related knowledge were assessed by adolescents at two time points. A developmental cascade analysis was conducted using structural equation modeling to assess how withdrawal and control-related parenting impact each other transactionally over time. Analyses included a test for gender differences in the model.

RESULTS

The cascade model revealed that, controlling for previous levels of social withdrawal and parenting, earlier social withdrawal positively predicted psychological control and negatively predicted monitoring knowledge, and earlier parental psychological control-but not monitoring knowledge-predicted later social withdrawal. No adolescent gender differences were identified in the associations between social withdrawal and parental knowledge.

CONCLUSIONS

This study offers insight into the mechanisms by which adolescents become more or less withdrawn over time, and suggests psychological control as a point of psychoeducation or intervention for parents.

Relative importance of caregiver characteristics for future alcohol consumption in youth involved with child welfare system

BACKGROUND

Adolescents involved with child welfare system are disproportionately at risk for underage drinking. Little empirical evidence has informed interventions targeting child welfare caregivers to prevent alcohol consumption among adolescents involved with the system.

METHODS

The present study addressed this gap by examining modifiable caregiver characteristics most predictive of future underage drinking in a cohort of adolescents (N = 1205) in a nationally representative child welfare dataset. We used dominance analyses to examine direct contributions of each caregiver predictor to the overall variance of future alcohol use. This is the first study to apply the reputable Turrisi and Jaccard (2001) framework of familial processes affecting underage drinking to the child welfare population.

RESULTS

Findings highlight the role of caregiver-adolescent relational quality and communications for predicting underage alcohol use, and downplay the role of caregiver monitoring.

CONCLUSIONS

Child welfare service systems may help prevent underage drinking by systematically training and motivating caregivers to foster trusting, helping relationships and regular communications with the adolescents in their care.

Keeping secrets from parents: on galloping horses, prancing ponies and pink unicorns

We identify the need for a new wave of research on adolescent secrecy in their relationship with parents that relinquishes the focus on the nomothetic objective of finding general principles. This third wave builds on novel insights on three fallacies committed in previous waves of research: (1) between-person effects do not necessarily provide insights into within-family processes (the ecological fallacy), (2) within-family processes are not necessarily homogeneous across adolescents and families (the one size fits all fallacy), and (3) longer-term effects are not necessarily identical to short-term processes (the galloping horse fallacy). This approach promises to provide us with a more person-specific understanding of adolescent secrecy from parents, which enables more tailored insights as to when and for whom secrecy is bad versus good.

Keeping secrets from friends: Exploring the effects of friendship quality, loneliness and self-esteem on secrecy

The tendency to keep secrets in adolescents has been studied in particular in their relationships with their parents and associated with psychosocial disadvantages. The current study focused on peer relationships and investigated the effects of friendship quality, loneliness in a multidimensional perspective, and self-esteem on secrecy from friends. Italian adolescents (N = 457; 47% male; 100% white) aged between 13 and 19 years (M = 16.11; SD = 1.53) reported their secrecy from friends, peer and parent-related loneliness, aversion and affinity for aloneness, their self-esteem and the quality of their relationships with their friends. The results showed that peer-related loneliness, affinity for aloneness and self-esteem in particular affect keeping secrets from friends, independent of the participant's gender. Moreover, peer-related loneliness and affinity for aloneness mediated the relationship between self-esteem and secrecy. The data were discussed in the light of adolescence developmental tasks.

Parental monitoring, adolescent dishonesty and underage drinking: A nationally representative study

Little research has connected underage drinking with adolescent information management strategies. The present study uses longitudinal analyses to theoretically link adolescent lying with parental "monitoring knowledge," and, in turn, with prospective adolescent drinking, in a large nationally representative sample of U.S. seventh- and eighth-graders (N = 4020). Structural equation modeling evaluated and supported, two key hypotheses: (1) dishonesty promotes future alcohol use by decreasing parental monitoring knowledge, and (2) dishonesty directly predicts alcohol consumption independent of its effects on parental monitoring. Maternal warmth and adolescent satisfaction with maternal relationships, but not parental control, were associated with lessened lying, and predicted parental monitoring and underage drinking. Our data implicate the role of adolescent agency for parental monitoring and highlight advantages of cohesive as opposed to over-restrictive parenting.

Parental monitoring and knowledge: Testing bidirectional associations with youths' antisocial behavior

In the present study, we used separate measures of parental monitoring and parental knowledge and compared their associations with youths' antisocial behavior during preadolescence, between the ages of 10 and 12. Parental monitoring and knowledge were reported by mothers, fathers, and youths taking part in the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study that follows 1,116 families with twins. Information on youths' antisocial behavior was obtained from mothers as well as teachers. We report two main findings. First, longitudinal cross-lagged models revealed that greater parental monitoring did not predict less antisocial behavior later, once family characteristics were taken into account. Second, greater youth antisocial behavior predicted less parental knowledge later. This effect of youths' behavior on parents' knowledge was consistent across mothers', fathers', youths', and teachers' reports, and robust to controls for family confounders. The association was partially genetically mediated according to a Cholesky decomposition twin model; youths' genetically influenced antisocial behavior led to a decrease in parents' knowledge of youths' activities. These two findings question the assumption that greater parental monitoring can reduce preadolescents' antisocial behavior. They also indicate that parents' knowledge of their children's activities is influenced by youths' behavior.

Assessing elements of a family approach to reduce adolescent drinking frequency: parent-adolescent relationship, knowledge management and keeping secrets

AIMS

To estimate (1) the associations between parent-adolescent relationship, parental knowledge and subsequent adolescent drinking frequency and (2) the influence of alcohol use on parental knowledge.

DESIGN

Path analysis of school based cohort study with annual surveys.

SETTING

Post-primary schools from urban and intermediate/rural areas in Northern Ireland.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 4937 post-primary school students aged approximately 11 years in 2000 followed until approximately age 16 years in 2005.

MEASUREMENTS

Pupil-reported measures of: frequency of alcohol use; parent-child relationship quality; subdimensions of parental monitoring: parental control, parental solicitation, child disclosure and child secrecy.

FINDINGS

Higher levels of parental control [ordinal logistic odds ratio (OR) = 0.86, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.78, 0.95] and lower levels of child secrecy (OR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.75, 0.92) were associated subsequently with less frequent alcohol use. Parental solicitation and parent-child relationship quality were not associated with drinking frequency. Weekly alcohol drinking was associated with higher subsequent secrecy (beta -0.42, 95% CI = -0.53, -0.32) and lower parental control (beta -0.15, 95% CI = -0.26, -0.04). Secrecy was more strongly predictive of alcohol use at younger compared with older ages (P = 0.02), and alcohol use was associated less strongly with parental control among families with poorer relationships (P = 0.04).

CONCLUSIONS

Adolescent alcohol use appears to increase as parental control decreases and child secrecy increases. Greater parental control is associated with less frequent adolescent drinking subsequently, while parent-child attachment and parental solicitation have little influence on alcohol use.

Parent-child relationships of boys in different offending trajectories: a developmental perspective

BACKGROUND

This study tested the theoretical assumption that transformations of parent-child relationships in late childhood and adolescence would differ for boys following different offending trajectories.

METHODS

Using longitudinal multiinformant data of 503 boys (ages 7-19), we conducted Growth Mixture Modeling to extract offending trajectories. Developmental changes in child reports of parent-child joint activities and relationship quality were examined using Latent Growth Curves.

RESULTS

Five offending trajectories were found: non-offenders, moderate childhood offenders, adolescent-limited offenders, serious childhood offenders, and serious persistent offenders. Non-offenders reported high and stable levels of relationship quality between age 10 and 16. Adolescent-limited offenders reported a similarly high relationship quality as non-offenders at ages 7 and 10, but a lower and decreasing relationship quality in adolescence. Compared with non-offenders, serious persistent offenders reported poorer parent-child relationship quality at all ages, and a decreasing relationship quality in adolescence. Serious persistent offenders and adolescent-limited offenders reported similar levels and changes in parent-child relationship quality in adolescence. Although serious persistent offenders reported fewer joint activities at age 10 and 13 than non-offenders, a similar linear decrease in joint activities in early to middle adolescence was found for boys in each trajectory.

CONCLUSION

Developmental changes in parent-child relationship quality differ for different types of offenders. This finding has scientific and practical implications.

Adolescent Perspectives on Rules and Resistance Within the Parent-Child Relationship

Thirty-two adolescents between the ages of 13 and 19 participated in a semistructured interview regarding their perspectives on parental expectations and their strategies for expressing resistance. Thematic analyses indicated that adolescents perceive parental expectations as flexible and coconstructed rather than as firm, explicit, standing rules. Adolescents described their strategies for expressing resistance as multifaceted, consisting of overt behavioral strategies and covert cognitive strategies that reflect autonomous and relational motives. The implications of the findings were discussed with regard to conflict, socialization theory, and clinical models of noncompliance.

The relationship between parental knowledge and monitoring and child and adolescent conduct problems: a 10-year update

Inadequate parental monitoring is widely recognized as a risk factor for the development of child and adolescent conduct problems. However, previous studies examining parental monitoring have largely measured parental knowledge and not the active methods used by parents to track the activities and behavior of their children. The seminal work of Stattin and Kerr (Child Dev 71:1072-1085, 2000; Kerr and Stattin in Dev Psychol 36:366-380, 2000) has challenged the field to reinterpret the construct of parental monitoring, focusing on the active components of this parenting behavior. As a result, this area of research has witnessed a resurgence of activity. The goal of the current paper is to review the evidence regarding the relationship between parental knowledge and monitoring and child and adolescent conduct problems that has accumulated during the past decade. Forty-seven studies published between 2000 and 2010 were identified by searching major databases and bibliographies and were included in this review. This paper will examine the following areas: (a) "parental monitoring" as "parental knowledge"; (b) parental knowledge as driven by child disclosure; (c) the relationship between parental knowledge and monitoring and child and adolescent conduct problems; (d) bidirectional associations between parental knowledge and monitoring and child and adolescent conduct problems; (e) contextual influences on parental knowledge and monitoring; (f) antecedents of parental knowledge and monitoring; (g) clinical implications of research on parental knowledge and monitoring; and (h) limitations of existing research and future directions.

Forbidden friends as forbidden fruit: parental supervision of friendships, contact with deviant peers, and adolescent delinquency

Spending leisure time with deviant peers may have strong influences on adolescents' delinquency. The current 3-wave multi-informant study examined how parental control and parental prohibition of friendships relate to these undesirable peer influences. To this end, annual questionnaires were administered to 497 Dutch youths (283 boys, mean age = 13 years at baseline), their best friends, and both parents. Cross-lagged panel analyses revealed strong longitudinal links from contacts with deviant peers to adolescent delinquency, but not vice versa. Parent-reported prohibition of friendships positively predicted contacts with deviant peers and indirectly predicted higher adolescent delinquency. Similar indirect effects were not found for parental control. The results suggest that forbidden friends may become "forbidden fruit," leading to unintended increases in adolescents' own delinquency.

Prospective protective effect of parents on peer influences and college alcohol involvement

This prospective study used a conceptually based risk and protective framework to investigate whether parental influences exert a protective effect on the robust association between peer influences and college alcohol involvement. Participants were incoming freshmen in the control condition of a randomized clinical trial, N = 256, 57.0% female, baseline age: M = 18.36 years (SD = 0.41). Participants completed telephone surveys in the summer before matriculation (baseline) and in the spring of the freshman (10-month) and sophomore years (22-month) with 85.6% retention at 22-months. Latent growth models were estimated for heavy episodic drinking and alcohol-related consequences. Descriptive norms and social modeling among peers were positively associated with initial heavy drinking and consequences; parental drinking permissiveness was positively associated with initial heavy drinking. Greater social modeling among peers was associated with less growth in consequences. Parental monitoring was not significantly associated with alcohol involvement. Prematriculation social modeling exhibited a weaker positive association with initial heavy drinking and consequences at low prematriculation parental drinking permissiveness compared to high. Similarly, prematriculation descriptive norms exhibited a weaker positive association with initial heavy drinking at low prematriculation parental drinking permissiveness compared to high. Prematriculation descriptive norms were not significantly associated with growth in heavy drinking at low parental drinking permissiveness; in contrast, higher prematriculation descriptive norms were associated with less growth in heavy drinking at high parental drinking permissiveness. Findings provide support for a protective parental influence on peer-alcohol relations extending into college. Parental drinking permissiveness may be an important target for parent-based interventions.