Parental Monitoring and Adolescents' Sense of Responsibility for Their Own Learning: An Examination of Sex Differences

Abstract

In this study, the Children's Hassles Scale, the Life Events Record, the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility Scale, and the Hare Self-Esteem Scale were used as measures to examine the monitoring processes of parents and their effects on the attitudes and experiences of sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade African American inner-city adolescents (N = 498). Parental influence wasfound to be significant in the career and goal aspirations of the adolescents, despite adolescents' reports of feeling hassled by parents. Parental monitoring activities, reported as hassles by youth, and the adolescents' self-efficacy were positive indicators of learning responsibility. The study also measured the differences in perceptions between the sexes for the adolescents studied.