The Relations of Stressful Events and Nonacademic Future Expectations in African American Adolescents: Gender Differences in Parental Monitoring

Abstract

Urban African American high school students (N = 206) completed a study to examine gender differences in parental monitoring and the effect on the relationship between exposure to stressful life events and nonacademic future expectations. Participant's ages range from 13 to 18 (M = 15.78, SD = 1.19). Participants reported high exposure to stressful life events, but also high future expectations. Older girls reported the highest levels of parental monitoring. Parental monitoring showed a moderating effect on the future expectations only for African American adolescent males, who were exposed to a high number of stressful life events. This finding seems to suggest that while older African American adolescent females report the highest levels of parental monitoring, the construct has more of an impact on outcomes for males.Keywords: gender differences, stressful events, parental monitoring, future expectations, African American adolescentsAdolescence is a difficult and stressful time in the lives of youths regardless of gender, race, and background. Along with the normal trials associated with puberty, adolescence may be more challenging for ethnic and minority youth (Garcia Coll et al., 1996). Racial and ethnic minority families tend to reside in urban neighborhoods, which are often characterized by many challenges to academic success and good psychological, cognitive, social, and physical development (Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000). However, living in an urban environment does not automatically lead to negative outcomes. Parents often buffer adolescents' experiences. In particular, parental monitoring plays significant roles for most adolescents (Spencer, Dupree, Swanson, & Cunningham, 1996, 1998).PARENTAL MONITORINGParents play important roles in the lives of adolescents, and it is no secret that parents hold very different views about sons and daughters. It has also been shown that as early as 3 -years old, parents pressure their children into appropriate sex-typed play (Eisenberg, Wolchik, Hernandez, & Pasternack, 1985). Studies reveal that parents use rewards and punishments differently for boys and girls for appropriate play (Eisenberg et al, 1985). It is important to understand this gender-based differential treatment of boys and girls in early childhood to have a more holistic view of its consequences in adolescence. This point is especially true for African American adolescents. Mandara, Murray, and Joyner (2005) demonstrated in one study how a father's absence or presence differentially affects African American girls and boys. In particular, they found that African American father-absent boys reported lower levels of masculinity (e.g., self-defined traditional notions of maleness as assessed on a scale of Adjective Q-sort of ideal masculine to ideal feminine) than African American father-present boys. The same study showed that lower income African American father-absent girls reported the highest levels of current masculinity of all African American girl participants (Mandara et al., 2005). These findings demonstrate how fathers differentially socialize boys and girls based on gender, and that girls are encouraged by dads to be more feminine and boys to be more masculine. Therefore, this study demonstrates how parenting strategies, and parental monitoring in particular, becomes more salient and meaningful for African American adolescents.In adolescence, one area where gender-based differences become important is in the levels of parental monitoring (Hamza & Willoughby, 2011; Spencer et al., 1996, 1998). Parental monitoring is defined as parents' knowledge, supervision, and control of their children's daily activities and peer relationships in an attempt to minimize the potential risks to which their children are exposed (Cottrell et al., 2003; Hamza & Willoughby, 2011; Spencer et al., 1996, 1998). For example, families that show moderate to high parental monitoring may include parents that are familiar with their children's friends, extracurricular activities, and express concern about where their children spend time away from home and school (Spencer et al. …