Negative reactions to monitoring: Do they undermine the ability of monitoring to protect adolescents?

This study focused on adolescents' negative reactions to parental monitoring to determine whether parents should avoid excessive monitoring because adolescents find monitoring behaviors to be over-controlling and privacy invasive. Adolescents (n = 242, M age = 15.4 years; 51% female) reported monitoring, negative reactions, warmth, antisocial behavior, depressive symptoms, and disclosure. Adolescents additionally reported antisocial behavior, depressive symptoms, and disclosure one to two years later. In cross-sectional analyses, less monitoring but more negative reactions were linked with less disclosure, suggesting that negative reactions can undermine parents' ability to obtain information. Although monitoring behaviors were not related to depressive symptoms, more negative reactions were linked with more depressive symptoms, suggesting that negative reactions also may increase depressive symptoms as a side effect of monitoring behavior. Negative reactions were not linked to antisocial behavior. There were no longitudinal links between negative reactions and changes in disclosure, antisocial behavior, or depressive symptoms.

Disclosure and Monitoring as Predictors of Mother-Adolescent Agreement in Reports of Early Adolescent Rule-Breaking Behavior.

The current study tested whether greater monitoring by mothers and greater disclosure by early adolescents was linked to greater agreement in mothers' and adolescents' reports of rule-breaking behavior. In doing so, the article demonstrated how polynomial regression analyses can be used to test hypotheses in which informant discrepancies serve as the dependent variable. Data were obtained from 218 mother-adolescent dyads (M adolescent age = 11.5 years, 51% female, 49% European American, 47% African American). Mothers and early adolescents provided reports of their perceptions of maternal monitoring (i.e., solicitation and control through rules), adolescent disclosure, and adolescent rule-breaking behavior. Polynomial regression models tested monitoring and disclosure as moderators of the association between mothers' and adolescents' reports of the adolescents' rule-breaking behavior. Mothers' reports of rule-breaking behavior were more strongly associated with adolescents' reports of their own rule-breaking behavior when mothers reported engaging in more solicitation or control through rules. There was less agreement in mothers' and adolescents' reports of rule breaking when adolescents reported that their mothers engaged in more solicitation. Adolescent disclosure did not moderate agreement in reported rule-breaking behavior. Greater monitoring by mothers may reduce the discrepancy in mother-adolescent reports of rule-breaking behavior. Findings also demonstrate the greater validity of polynomial regression approaches over difference scores when testing hypotheses with informant agreement as the outcome.

Warmth and legitimacy beliefs contextualize adolescents' negative reactions to parental monitoring.

This study sought to identify conditions under which parents' monitoring behaviors are most strongly linked to adolescents' negative reactions (i.e., feelings of being controlled and invaded). 242 adolescents (49.2% male; M age = 15.4 years) residing in the United States of America reported parental monitoring and warmth, and their own feelings of being controlled and invaded and beliefs in the legitimacy of parental authority. Analyses tested whether warmth and legitimacy beliefs moderate and/or suppress the link between parents' monitoring behaviors and adolescents' negative reactions. Monitoring was associated with more negative reactions, controlling for legitimacy beliefs and warmth. More monitoring was associated with more negative reactions only at weaker levels of legitimacy beliefs, and at lower levels of warmth. The link between monitoring and negative reactions is sensitive to the context within which monitoring occurs with the strongest negative reactions found in contexts characterized by low warmth and weak legitimacy beliefs.

Mother-adolescent monitoring dynamics and the legitimacy of parental authority.

This multi-informant longitudinal study aimed to understand whether the family dynamics that underlie adolescent voluntary disclosure regarding their leisure time behavior differs when adolescents strongly or weakly endorse the legitimacy of parental authority. Longitudinal linkages between parental monitoring behaviors and adolescents' secrecy and disclosure were tested among youths with strong and weak legitimacy beliefs. The sample included 197 adolescents (51% female, M age 12 years) and their mothers. Mothers reported on several of their own monitoring efforts (i.e., solicitation, active involvement, observing and listening, and obtaining information from spouses, siblings, and others). Adolescents reported their disclosure, secrecy, and legitimacy beliefs. Only among youths reporting strong legitimacy beliefs, more mother engagement and supervision (indexed by mother-reported active involvement and observing and listening) predicted more adolescent disclosure and less secrecy over time, and more mother solicitation predicted less secrecy.

Compliance with parents' rules: between-person and within-person predictions.

The current study focused on the childhood to adolescence transition and sought to determine why some children are more compliant than others as well as why children comply more often with some of their parents' rules than with others. Indices of parents' agency and children's agency were tested as predictors of compliance. Parent-based decision-making and parents' responses to expressed disagreement served as indices of parents' agency while children's beliefs regarding the legitimacy of parents' rules and felt obligation to obey rules served as indices of children's agency. Parent-child dyads (n = 218; 51% female, 49% European American, 47% African American) were interviewed during the summers following the children's 5th (M adolescent age = 11.9 years) and 6th grade school years. Children who felt that their parents' rules were more legitimate were more compliant overall than were children who felt that the rules were less legitimate. Children compiled more with rules governing topics perceived to be legitimately regulated by parents, when parents made more decisions regarding the topic and when parents responded to disagreement by standing strong. Results were generally consistent across parents' and children's reports of compliance and across cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. At the transition from childhood to adolescence, only children's agency explained why some children are more compliant than others, but parents' and children's agency helped to explain why children complied with some rules more than others.

Mothers' and fathers' autonomy-relevant parenting: longitudinal links with adolescents' externalizing and internalizing behavior.

The goal of this study was to advance the understanding of separate and joint effects of mothers' and fathers' autonomy-relevant parenting during early and middle adolescence. In a sample of 518 families, adolescents (49 % female; 83 % European American, 16 % African American, 1 % other ethnic groups) reported on their mothers' and fathers' psychological control and knowledge about adolescents' whereabouts, friends, and activities at ages 13 and 16. Mothers and adolescents reported on adolescents' externalizing and internalizing behaviors at ages 12, 14, 15, and 17. Adolescents perceived their mothers as using more psychological control and having more knowledge than their fathers, but there was moderate concordance between adolescents' perceptions of their mothers and fathers. More parental psychological control predicted increases in boys' and girls' internalizing problems and girls' externalizing problems. More parental knowledge predicted decreases in boys' externalizing and internalizing problems. The perceived levels of behavior of mothers and fathers did not interact with one another in predicting adolescent adjustment. The results generalize across early and late adolescence and across mothers' and adolescents' reports of behavior problems. Autonomy-relevant mothering and fathering predict changes in behavior problems during early and late adolescence, but only autonomy-relevant fathering accounts for unique variance in adolescent behavior problems.

Variability in adolescent reception of parental support: Testing the domain-matching hypothesis.

The present study investigated matches and mismatches between adolescent and parent socialization domains (i.e., protection, guidance) as related to adolescent reception of parental support during a laboratory-based social evaluation challenge. Participants were 80 early adolescents (Mage = 12.36 years, SD = 1.33, 55% males, 55% Black, 42.5% White, and 2.5% other races or ethnicities) and one parent or guardian per adolescent. Observational measures of parent socialization domains assessed sensitivity to adolescents' thoughts and feelings (protection domain) and prosocial behavioral advice (guidance domain). Measures of parallel adolescent socialization domains included self-reported discomfort during a social evaluation challenge (protection domain) and desire to continue the social evaluation challenge (guidance domain). Adolescent reception of parental support was assessed using an observational measure of adolescent attentiveness and responsiveness to the parent during a parent-adolescent discussion about how to approach the social evaluation challenge. Analyses of interactions between measures of parent and adolescent socialization domains revealed: (a) higher levels of adolescent-reported discomfort during the social evaluation challenge interfered with their reception of parental prosocial behavioral advice but did not enhance their reception of parental sensitivity, and (b) higher levels of adolescent-reported desire to continue the social evaluation challenge interfered with their reception of parental sensitivity but did not enhance their reception of parental prosocial behavioral advice. This study advances socialization research by identifying conditions under which adolescents are more and less receptive to supportive communication from parents. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Intervention format and therapist-child agreement associated with therapeutic alliance and outcomes.

OBJECTIVE: The study examined the effects of therapeutic alliance (TA; relational bond, task collaboration) on externalizing behavior outcomes, how TA can operate differently when children are seen in individual versus group sessions, and how therapist-child disagreement in perceptions of TA affects outcomes. METHOD: Three hundred sixty children (Ages 9.2-11.8; 65% male; 78.1% Black) identified as having high rates of aggressive behavior by the fourth-grade teachers, and their 20 elementary schools were randomized to group versus individual delivery of the cognitive behavioral intervention, Coping Power. TA ratings were collected from children and therapists at mid and end of intervention using the Therapeutic Alliance Scale for Children. Teacher ratings of children's externalizing and internalizing behavior problems were collected prior to intervention and at 1-year follow-up after intervention using the Behavior Assessment System for Children. RESULTS: Children receiving the intervention individually reported significantly higher trait-like levels of task collaboration than did children seen in groups. Independent of intervention format, higher trait-like levels of therapist-rated bond and task collaboration predicted reduced levels of externalizing problems, and higher trait-like levels of child- and therapist-rated task-collaboration and therapist-rated bond predicted reduced levels of internalizing problems. Differences between therapist and child reports of bond predicted weaker reductions in internalizing behavior for children seen in groups. CONCLUSIONS: It is essential to train therapists to develop and assess for TA by midintervention with children with aggressive behavior problems, especially if they are seen in small groups, and to determine if therapists may misperceive the strength of TA. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Secrets from friends and parents: longitudinal links with depression and antisocial behavior.

Keeping secrets from parents is associated with depression and antisocial behavior. The current study tested whether keeping secrets from best friends is similarly linked to maladjustment, and whether associations between secrecy and maladjustment are moderated by the quality of the friendship. Adolescents (N = 181; 51% female, 48% white, non-Hispanic, 45% African American) reported their secrecy from parents and best friends, the quality of their parent-adolescent relationships and best friendships, and their depression and antisocial behavior at ages 12 and 13. Keeping more secrets from best friends was associated with more depression, but not with more antisocial behavior, when controlling for earlier adjustment, secrecy from parents, and the quality of the friendship. For girls associations between maladjustment and secrecy were conditioned by the quality of the relationships and whether secrets were kept from parents and friends. Discussion argues for expanding the study of secrecy in adolescence beyond the parent-child dyad.

Brief report: improving the validity of assessments of adolescents' feelings of privacy invasion.

Studies of privacy invasion have relied on measures that combine items assessing adolescents' feelings of privacy invasion with items assessing parents' monitoring behaviors. Removing items assessing parents' monitoring behaviors may improve the validity of assessments of privacy invasion. Data were collected from 163 adolescents (M age 13 years, 5 months; 47% female; 50% European American, non-Hispanic, 46% African American) and their mothers. A model specifying separate factors for privacy invasion and monitoring behavior fit adolescent-reported and parent-reported data significantly better than a single factor model. Although privacy invasion and monitoring behavior were positively associated, privacy invasion and monitoring behavior correlations were significantly different from one another across all ten variables reported by adolescents and across eight of the nine variables reported by mothers. The pattern of results strongly supports a recommendation for researchers to exclude items assessing monitoring behaviors to provide a more valid assessment of privacy invasion.

Reciprocal relations between parents' physical discipline and children's externalizing behavior during middle childhood and adolescence.

Using data from two long-term longitudinal projects, we investigated reciprocal relations between maternal reports of physical discipline and teacher and self-ratings of child externalizing behavior, accounting for continuity in both discipline and externalizing over time. In Study 1, which followed a community sample of 562 boys and girls from age 6 to 9, high levels of physical discipline in a given year predicted high levels of externalizing behavior in the next year, and externalizing behavior in a given year predicted high levels of physical discipline in the next year. In Study 2, which followed an independent sample of 290 lower income, higher risk boys from age 10 to 15, mother-reported physical discipline in a given year predicted child ratings of antisocial behavior in the next year, but child antisocial behavior in a given year did not predict parents' use of physical discipline in the next year. In neither sample was there evidence that associations between physical discipline and child externalizing changed as the child aged, and findings were not moderated by gender, race, socioeconomic status, or the severity of the physical discipline. Implications for the reciprocal nature of the socialization process and the risks associated with physical discipline are discussed.

Parent-child relationships and dyadic friendship experiences as predictors of behavior problems in early adolescence.

This study focused on support and conflict in parent-child relationships and dyadic friendships as predictors of behavior problems in early adolescence (n = 182; M age = 12.9 years, 51% female, 45% African American, 74% two-parent homes). Support and conflict in one relationship context were hypothesized to moderate the effects of experiences in the other relationship context. Adolescent-reported antisocial behavior was low when either parent-child relationships or friendships were low in conflict, and adolescent-reported depressed mood was low when either friendship conflict was low or parental support was high. Parent-reported antisocial behavior was high when high levels of conflict were reported in either parent-child or friendship relationships and adolescent-reported depressed mood was high when either parental or friendship support was low. Associations appear to be similar for boys and girls as no interactions involving gender were significant.

Introduction to special issue. Careful conversations: adolescents managing their parents' access to information.

Stattin and Kerr's (2000; Kerr & Stattin, 2000) seminal work challenged our understanding of parental monitoring, shifted attention to adolescents' agency as information managers, and pushed researchers to focus more on their measures and to think more about the interactional and relational processes that keep, or fail to keep, parents informed. Spurred by this reinterpretation of "parental monitoring", research has shifted in the last decade from a nearly exclusive focus on parents' role in socializing adolescents through monitoring their whereabouts, friendships, and activities, to a broader recognition of, and appreciation for, adolescents' active role in strategically managing their parents' access to information. This special issue showcases this new perspective by gathering a set of studies focusing collectively on a wide variety of information management strategies and exploring bidirectional links with indicators of youths' psychosocial adjustment and parent-child relationship qualities.

Information management and behavior problems: is concealing misbehavior necessarily a sign of trouble?

This study sought to determine whether adolescents' strategic management of information about their misbehavior was associated with behavior problems and whether the associations were moderated by parental trust or adolescent authority beliefs. Data were provided by 218 mother-adolescent dyads. Adolescents (49% female; M age=12 years) reported their use of two disclosing (i.e., telling all, telling if asked) and three concealing (i.e., omitting details, secret keeping, lying) strategies following misbehavior. More disclosing and less concealing were associated with less depressed mood and with less antisocial and rule-breaking behavior. Associations between strategy use and antisocial and rule-breaking behavior were attenuated when parents reported high trust or adolescents reported strong authority beliefs. Greater use of concealing strategies following misbehavior is more likely to be a sign of trouble than a sign of emerging autonomy, but the negative effects of concealment are attenuated in some relational contexts.

Revisiting parental monitoring: evidence that parental solicitation can be effective when needed most.

Studies using valid measures of monitoring activities have not found the anticipated main effects linking greater monitoring activity with fewer behavioral problems. This study focused on two contexts in which monitoring activities may be particularly influential. Early adolescents (n = 218, M age = 11.5 years, 51% female, 49% European American, 47% African American) reported their unsupervised time, beliefs about the legitimacy of their parents' authority, and their own involvement in antisocial behavior. Mothers and adolescents reported their perceptions of adolescent disclosure and parental solicitation and control. Adolescents' perceptions of greater parental solicitation at age 11 were associated with less antisocial behavior at age 12 (when controlling for age 11 antisocial behavior) among adolescents reporting large amounts of unsupervised time and weak legitimacy beliefs. Perceived parental solicitation may be an effective deterrent of antisocial behavior when adolescents spend a lot of time unsupervised and for adolescents who are likely to challenge the legitimacy of their parents' authority.

Analytical challenges of testing hypotheses of agreement and discrepancy: Comment on Campione-Barr, Lindell, and Giron (2020).

Researchers are often inclined to test agreement or discrepancy hypotheses using difference scores. This commentary explains 2 mathematical-statistical principles underlying associations with difference scores and 2 conceptual-interpretation problems that make difference scores inappropriate for testing such hypotheses. The commentary provides examples of valid and invalid interpretations of difference score associations in reference to equivalent models. The commentary recommends testing agreement hypotheses using interaction terms and explains how to do so. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Developmental Trajectories and Antecedents of Distal Parental Supervision.

Groups of adolescents were identified on the basis of developmental trajectories of their families' rules and their parents' knowledge of their activities. Characteristics of the adolescent, peer antisociality, and family context were tested as antecedents. In sum, 404 parent-adolescent dyads provided data for adolescents aged 10-16. Most adolescents were classified into groups characterized by low levels and reductions in family rules over time. However, low socioeconomic status and residence in unsafe neighborhoods increased membership in the group characterized by consistently high levels of family rules. Most adolescents were assigned membership in groups characterized by relatively stable moderate-to-high levels of parental knowledge of their activities. However, greater externalizing problems and peer antisociality, as well as residence in an unsafe neighborhood, increased membership in the group characterized by low and decreasing levels of knowledge. Results suggest that personal and contextual risk antecedes nonnormative decreases in parental knowledge, whereas contextual risk inhibits normative reductions in family rules.

Associations of bullying, victimization, and daytime sleepiness with academic problems in adolescents attending an alternative high school.

Adolescents attending alternative high schools often present with high rates of academic and behavior problems. They are also at increased risk of poor health behaviors and engaging in physical violence compared with students in traditional high school settings. To address the needs of students in these educational settings, examining factors that influence academic problems in this population is essential. Research has established that both bullying/victimization and sleep problems increase adolescents' risk for academic problems. Little is known about how these 2 factors together may exacerbate risk for academic problems among students attending an alternative high school. The current study investigated the interaction between teacher-reported bullying, victimization and daytime sleepiness on academic concerns (attention and learning problems) among a sample of 172 students (56% female; age M = 18.07 years, SD = 1.42) attending an alternative high school in a large, Southeastern U.S. city. Findings from path models indicated that daytime sleepiness, bullying, and victimization were uniquely associated with attention and learning problems. Further, significant interactions indicated that the association between victimization/bullying and attention/learning problems weakened as levels of daytime sleepiness increased. Results suggest the importance of assessing and addressing multiple contextual risk factors in adolescents attending alternative high schools to provide comprehensive intervention for students in these settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Parents' monitoring knowledge attenuates the link between antisocial friends and adolescent delinquent behavior.

Developmental trajectories of parents' knowledge of their adolescents' whereabouts and activities were tested as moderators of transactional associations between friends' antisociality and adolescent delinquent behavior. 504 adolescents (50% female) provided annual reports (from ages 12 to 16) of their parents' knowledge and (from ages 13 to 16) their own delinquent behavior and their friends' antisociality. Parents also reported the adolescents' delinquent behavior. Growth mixture modeling was used to identify two sub-groups based on their monitoring knowledge growth trajectories. Adolescents in the sub-group characterized by decreasing levels of parents' knowledge reported more delinquent behavior and more friend antisociality in early adolescence, and reported greater increases in delinquent behavior and friend antisociality from early to middle adolescence compared to adolescents in the sub-group characterized by increasing levels of parents' knowledge. Transactional associations consistent with social influence and social selection processes also were suppressed in the increasing knowledge sub-group as compared to the decreasing knowledge sub-group.