A Reinterpretation of Parental Monitoring in Longitudinal Perspective

A commonly used measure of parental monitoring is parents' knowledge of adolescents' daily activities. This measure has been criticized on the grounds that parents get more knowledge about teenagers' daily activities through willing youth disclosure than through their own active monitoring efforts, but this claim was based on cross-sectional data. In the present study, we reexamine this claim with longitudinal data over 2 years from 938 seventh and eighth graders and their parents. Youth disclosure was a significant longitudinal predictor of parental knowledge in single- and cross-rater models. Neither measure of parents' monitoring efforts—control or solicitation—was a significant predictor. In analyses…

• ES
  European Science Foundation
• FF
  Forskningsrådet för Arbetsliv och Socialvetenskap
• V
  Vetenskapsrådet
• RJ
  Riksbankens Jubileumsfond