Parental monitoring longitudinally associates with reduced risk of adolescent mental health problems

Abstract

• Longitudinal analyses from a large birth cohort in the southeast of England. • Parental monitoring reduced likelihood of depression, anxiety, and self-harm in late adolescence. • Analyses did not indicate a role for emotional quality of the parent-child relationship. • No interaction of parenting with child gender in relation to outcomes. Prior research examining the impact of parenting on adolescent mental health has been limited by the use of cross-sectional designs and the use of small or clinical samples. We used data (N = 6,212) from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a UK-based birth cohort study. We found longitudinal evidence that parental monitoring in late childhood/early adolescence (ages 9.5-13.5), but not the emotional quality of the parent-child relationship, reduces the likelihood of offspring major depressive disorder (Odds Ratio (OR) = 0.64, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 0.56 – 0.76), anxiety disorder (OR = 0.60, 95% CI = 0.53 – 0.69), and self-harm (OR = 0.65, 95% CI = 0.57 – 0.75) at age 18. Associations did not vary according to adolescent gender. Findings indicate a role for the importance of parenting monitoring for later adolescent mental health. Future research is needed to understand why this aspect of parenting is associated with better adolescent outcomes.