Parental Monitoring Effort Predicts Risk-Taking Differently for Younger and Older Adolescents

• In Event: Parenting adolescents and young adults

Abstract

The links between parental monitoring strategies and adolescent risk behaviors have been long debated across literature. Whereas some findings suggest that greater parental monitoring is related to youths’ decreased risk-taking (Romo et al., 2017), other findings suggest greater parental monitoring is instead related to youths’ increased risk-taking (Wang et al., 2015). One potential explanation for this discrepancy is that studies that have examined parental monitoring strategies may have conflated parental monitoring effort (i.e., parents’ active supervisory efforts) with parental monitoring knowledge (i.e., parents’ passive awareness of youths’ whereabouts and activities; Stattin & Kerr, 2000). Though parent-driven monitoring efforts may play an important—and distinct—role in predicting youths’ risky behaviors, studies that have specifically examined associations between parental monitoring effort and youth risk-taking report mixed results. Some findings suggest greater monitoring effort is related to less antisocial behavior (Barrera et al., 2001), and other findings suggest greater monitoring effort is not related to adolescent delinquency at all (Keijsers et al., 2010). Notably, as youths progress through adolescence, they experience developmental changes, such as increased susceptibility to peer influence (Steinberg & Monahan, 2007) and an increased need for autonomy (i.e., independent decision-making; Eccles et al., 1993). Such age-related changes may contribute to disparate perceptions of parental monitoring efforts among younger and older adolescents. The present study examined how the association between parental monitoring effort and adolescent risk-taking operates differently by age.

The sample consisted of 117 adolescents (M_age = 15.21) and was predominantly female (64.1%). The largest racial/ethnic group was White (41%). Participants completed measures of risk-taking and maternal monitoring effort and knowledge. Multiple linear regression was used to examine the interaction between parental monitoring effort and age, with age represented by a quadratic polynomial (age²). Maternal monitoring knowledge and the interaction between parental monitoring effort and linear age were both included in the model. Higher rates of parental monitoring effort were related to lower rates of risk-taking in mid-adolescence and higher rates of risk-taking in late adolescence [b = 12.835, t(110) = 1.99, p = .05]; lower rates of parental monitoring effort were related to higher rates of risk-taking in mid-adolescence and lower rates of risk-taking in late adolescence. The final model predicted 26% of the variance in adolescents’ risk-taking (R² = .26). For a graphical representation, see Figure 1.

Findings from the present study suggest that, among adolescents whose parents frequently engage in supervisory efforts, risk-taking is lower in early adolescence and higher in late adolescence. Among adolescents whose parents infrequently engage in such efforts, risk-taking is greatest around mid-adolescence and lower at subsequent ages. These findings fall in line with developmental literature, which suggests that, throughout adolescence, the need for autonomy increases and youths’ perceptions of parents’ authority as legitimate declines (Darling et al., 2007). Thus, younger adolescents may view parents’ monitoring efforts as more reasonable, whereas older adolescents may view such efforts as restrictive (Smetana et al., 2005). Parents may wish to consider how normative changes throughout adolescence might disparately impact the effectiveness of their monitoring strategies.

Authors

• Anna Dmitriyevna Ziencina, University of Texas at El Paso
  Presenting Author

• Isabelle Clough

• April Gile Thomas