The Importance of Parental Warmth, Support, and Control in Preventing Adolescent Misbehavior

Abstract

Parents are often told that better monitoring can prevent adolescents’ misbehavior. However, recent research suggests that adolescents’ voluntary self-disclosure of behaviors is more important than parents’ active attempts to supervise (i.e., track and control) their children in determining adolescent misbehavior. This secondary analysis of a survey administered to students in grades 7, 9, and 11/12 in a diverse community in the northeastern region of the U.S. examines the contribution of various dimensions of parenting (i.e., parental warmth, support, and control) and child disclosure to parental knowledge of their child’s activities and whereabouts and child involvement in problem behaviors. The findings, similar for both younger (under 16 years) and older adolescents, suggest that 1) youths’ reports of parents’ knowledge of their activities and whereabouts (parental knowledge) is significantly associated with truancy, alcohol use, drug use, and delinquency; 2) parental knowledge was determined predominantly by the youth’s willingness to disclose; 3) youth’s willingness to disclose was predicted by perceived parental warmth and parental support; 4) in addition to indirect effects on risky behaviors (through parental knowledge), a youth’s willingness to disclose also had direct effects on grades; and 5) parental support also had direct effects on four of the six risky behaviors independent of youth disclosure while parental warmth had direct effects on grades and delinquency. These findings, together with those of others, suggest that parents may still play a role, albeit indirectly through parental warmth and support, in reducing adolescent misbehaviors.