Self-Regulation and Relational and Physical Victimization: The Moderating Role of Parental Monitoring

• In Event: 1-152 - Executive Functioning and Relational Aggression/Victimization: Longitudinal Findings from Childhood to Adolescence

Integrative Statement

Peer victimization is a common, yet disruptive part of the lives of adolescents that can significantly contribute to detrimental outcomes (Jiang et al., 2016). PV can be experienced both physically (PV; e.g., hitting) or relationally (RV; e.g., exclusion). During adolescence, individuals are also increasingly learning how to better regulate their behaviors and emotions (Rudolph et al., 2009) suggesting that self-regulation is of particular importance in understanding peer victimization. It may be that dysregulated adolescents display socially undesirable behavior which contribute to victimization. Parental monitoring has long been established as a buffer against victimization (Low & Espelage, 2014) and may be an important protective factor against victimization for adolescents with low self-regulatory skills.

Data were drawn from a community sample of 801 adolescents (aged 13-15) recruited via address-based sampling. All participants completed online surveys at baseline (time 1) and 6 months later (time 2). Adolescents provided self-reports on multiple variables. Self-regulation was measured via the self-control scale on the Social Skills Rating Scale (Gresham & Elliott, 1990). Relational and physical victimization scales were gathered from the California Bullying Victimization Scale (Felix et al., 2011). Parental monitoring was measured based on Barnes et al. (1997) items asking about parental knowledge of adolescents’ whereabouts. The current analytic sample included a total of 615 (59% female) adolescents (M = 13.99, SD = 0.81).

Moderation using the SPSS PROCESS macro (Hayes, 2016) assessed whether parental monitoring moderated the association between self-regulation and increases in victimization. Age, gender, and RV and PV at time 1 were included as covariates. Time 1 relational and physical victimization were associated with time 2 RV (b=0.36 and 0.22, ps<.05). Parental monitoring was also significantly associated with decreased RV (b=-0.02, p=.03). Although self-regulation was not significant, the interaction between parental monitoring and self-regulation was (b=.004, p=.03). Simple slopes revealed that there was a nonsignificant trend 1 SD below the mean (effect=-0.02, p=.09). Using the Johnson-Neymann technique, we found that for those with parental monitoring in the bottom 9% of the sample, self-regulation was associated with changes in RV (effect=-0.03, p=.05; Figure 1). This suggests that for those with very little parental monitoring, having better self-regulation decreases subsequent experiences with RV. The model was replicated using PV at time 2; however the interaction was not significant (b=.00, p=.95).

The present study examined how parental monitoring moderates associations between self-regulation and peer victimization. Significant moderating effects were only found for RV. Parental monitoring often involves the communication between parents and their children about where they are going and with whom they are spending time. This communication may be particularly important for adolescents who struggle with self-regulation as it might provide parents the opportunity to help those adolescents decide what peers are beneficial to spend their time with and those that might put them at risk for RV. On the other hand, parental monitoring may not best shield adolescents with self-regulatory difficulties from PV. These findings provide a unique understanding of the way in which parents may protect their children from particular victimization experiences.

Authors

• Kimberly E. Kamper-DeMarco, Buffalo State College
  Presenting Author

• Jennifer Livingston, University at Buffalo
  Non-Presenting Author