Predicting Youth Reoffending by Comparing Mothers’ and Sons’ Reports of Parental Monitoring

• In Event: Predictors of Juvenile Reoffending

Abstract

The connection between increased parental monitoring and decreased juvenile delinquency is well established. Less known is from whose perspective parental monitoring is considered adequate: the child’s perspective or the parent’s perspective? The present study compares a mother’s report of parental effort and knowledge to her son’s report of his mother’s effort and knowledge to examine which report is a better predictor of youth offending trajectory. Male first-time juvenile offenders and their mothers (N=634) were tracked over two and a half years. Using group-based trajectory modeling, three youth offending trajectories were identified. Multinomial logistic regression compared parent and child reports of parental monitoring and knowledge as predictors of offending trajectory groups. When considering parental monitoring effort, neither mothers’ nor sons’ reports were associated with offending trajectory group. However, when considering parental knowledge mothers who reported greater monitoring knowledge were more likely to have sons in the low reoffending (e.g., desisting) group relative to the medium reoffending group. Sons’ reports of mothers monitoring knowledge had no association with offending trajectory. The outcome suggests that when looking at parental monitoring efforts and knowledge, the mothers’ perspective of her monitoring knowledge predicts youthful offending trajectory.

Authors

• Erica Lee Dalzell, Michigan State University

• Caitlin Cavanagh, Michigan State University

• Elizabeth Cauffman, University of California, Irvine