Parenting practices and adolescent delinquency: COVID-19 impact in the United States

Abstract

Many past studies found parental monitoring and involvement were associated with reductions in delinquency and substance use among adolescents. However, we do not yet fully understand how the COVID-19 crisis affected parenting practices, nor the corresponding effects for juvenile delinquency and substance use. The study incorporated a repeated cross-sectional design with data drawn from two samples of Pennsylvania parents with teenage children. The first sample completed a web survey about parental monitoring in late 2019. The second completed a similar web survey with additional questions about COVID-19 in February 2021. The results indicated little association between COVID-related financial hardship and parental depression, nor between COVID-related financial hardship and parenting practices. While parents reported high levels of depressive symptoms during the pandemic, these appeared largely unrelated to parenting practices. There were few changes in parenting practices, on average, from before to during the pandemic. Most parents reported that their child’s behavior had not worsened during the pandemic.