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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on college and university campuses internationally (e.g., widespread campus closures, transitions to online learning). Postsecondary students, who were already a developmentally vulnerable population, are now facing additional new challenges, which could lead to increased mental health concerns. However, there is a paucity of research on the psychological impacts of COVID-19, or who may be most at risk, among postsecondary students. To address these gaps in the literature, we recontacted a sample of 773 postsecondary students (74% female, Mage = 18.52) who previously completed a survey on student mental health in May 2019, again in May 2020. Students filled out an online survey at both time points, reporting on their recent stressful experiences and mental health. Although we expected that students with preexisting mental health concerns would show increased psychological distress during the pandemic, this hypothesis was not supported. Instead, repeated-measures analyses demonstrated that students with preexisting mental health concerns showed improving or similar mental health during the pandemic (compared with one year prior). In contrast, students without preexisting mental health concerns were more likely to show declining mental health, which coincided with increased social isolation among these students. Our findings underscore that colleges and universities will not only need to continue to support students with preexisting mental health needs but also prioritize early prevention and intervention programming to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on students with increasing psychological distress, potentially stemming from increasing social isolation in response to the pandemic.

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This longitudinal study investigated the importance of parental monitoring to the deterrence of adolescent problem behavior by examining bidirectional associations among perceived parental monitoring, adolescent disclosure and problem behaviors across the high school years. Adolescents (N = 2,941; 50.3% female) were surveyed each year from grades 9 through 12. There was a reciprocal association between problem behavior and parental knowledge, such that higher parental knowledge predicted reduced problem behavior over time and higher problem behavior in turn predicted lower parental knowledge. It was adolescent disclosure that predicted parental knowledge, however, rather than parental monitoring behaviors. Parental control was a direct deterrent of problem behavior over time, and time spent engaged in family fun activities demonstrated indirect links to problem behavior, particularly through parental control and adolescent disclosure. Importantly, these effects were invariant across grade. Overall, these findings suggest a "family-centered process", rather than primarily a youth-driven or parent-driven process, in the prediction of problem behavior.

Parental monitoring has long been stressed as an important parenting practice in reducing adolescents' susceptibility to depressive symptoms. Reviews have revealed, however, that measures of monitoring have been confounded with parental knowledge, and that the role of adolescent disclosure has been neglected. In the present study, adolescents (N = 2,941; 51.3% female) were surveyed each year from grades 9-12. To disentangle parenting factors, bidirectional associations among parental knowledge, adolescent disclosure, and parental monitoring (i.e., solicitation and control) were examined. Higher parental knowledge was associated with lower adolescent depressive symptoms over time. Adolescent disclosure and parental control also predicted lower adolescent depressive symptoms indirectly through knowledge. Conversely, higher adolescent depressive symptoms predicted lower parental knowledge, adolescent disclosure, and parental solicitation over time, highlighting the bidirectional nature of associations among parenting factors and adolescent depressive symptoms. Importantly, these effects were invariant across gender and grade, suggesting that interventions can be broadly based.