Abstract
In this study, we examined how adolescents compare monitoring efforts by their parents to those of a "good parent" standard and assessed the impact of these comparisons on adolescent self-disclosure and risk behavior and their perceptions of their parents' monitoring knowledge. Survey responses from 519 adolescents (12–17 years) at baseline of a larger, longitudinal study examining parental monitoring and adolescent risk were examined. Adolescents’ “good parent comparisons” differed greatly by monitoring areas (e.g., telephone use, health, money); however, between 5.5% and 25.8% of adolescents believed their parents needed to monitor their activities more than they currently were monitoring. Alternatively, between 8.5% and 23.8% of adolescents believed their parents needed to monitor their activities less often. These perceptions significantly distinguished adolescents in terms of their level of disclosure, perceived monitoring knowledge, and risk involvement. Adolescents who viewed their parents as needing to monitor more were less likely to disclose information to their parents (p<.001), less likely to perceive their parents as having greater monitoring knowledge (p<.001), and more likely to be involved in a risk behaviors (p<.001) than adolescents who perceived their parents needed no change. Adolescent disclosure to a parent is a powerful predictor of adolescent risk and poor health outcomes. These findings demonstrate that adolescents' comparisons of their parents' monitoring efforts can predict differences in adolescent disclosure and future risk. Obtaining adolescent "good parent" comparisons may successfully identify intervention opportunities with the adolescent and parent by noting the areas of need and direction of monitoring improvement.
Highlights
Over the past several decades, parents or legal guardians of adolescents have been extensively examined with regard to their contributions to adolescent delinquency
Prior to the new millennium, parents’ composite knowledge about their adolescents’ friends, activities, and whereabouts was the fundamental factor studied for its inverse association with adolescent risk involvement [1,2,3]
When asked to compare their parents’ current monitoring efforts in select areas to that of a “good parent”, most adolescents reported their parents would not need to change the amount they monitored (61.5% to 72.5% depending on area; Table 1)
Summary
Over the past several decades, parents or legal guardians of adolescents have been extensively examined with regard to their contributions to adolescent delinquency. Prior to the new millennium, parents’ composite knowledge about their adolescents’ friends, activities, and whereabouts (i.e., parental monitoring knowledge) was the fundamental factor studied for its inverse association with adolescent risk involvement [1,2,3]. In 2000, Kerr and Stattin re-examined the parental monitoring construct based on the amount of information parents obtain about their adolescents and how they obtained that information [4]. From this expanded perspective, the most powerful predictor of parental monitoring knowledge was adolescent self-disclosure of information [4,5]. This research approach continues to examine parenting factors based on their impact on adolescent self-disclosure. Adolescent perceptions of monitoring are often more strongly associated with their engagement in risk behaviors than parent perceptions [14]
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