Parental Knowledge and Youth Risky Behavior: A Person Oriented Approach

Abstract

Most studies isolate the effects of one knowledge-related behavior on youth outcomes. This study explores the relationship between subgroups of mother–youth dyads that use specific combinations of parental knowledge-related behaviors and youth risky behavior. Using a sample of 796 rural 6th graders (53 % female), we assessed mother and youth reports of maternal knowledge, active parent monitoring efforts, youth disclosure, parental supervision, and the amount of parent–youth communication to identify five knowledge latent classes: High-Monitors, Maternal Over-Estimators, Low-Monitors, Communication-Focused, and Supervision-Focused. Delinquency, antisocial peers, and substance use were associated with increased odds of membership in the Supervision-Focused class, relative to the High Monitors. Membership in the Low Monitors and Maternal Over-Estimators classes was associated with unhealthy attitudes towards substances and for Low Monitors, substance use. The discussion focuses on the value of using a person-oriented approach to understand parental knowledge and risky behavior during early adolescence and intervention implications.

Introduction to the Special Issue: Discrepancies in Adolescent–Parent Perceptions of the Family and Adolescent Adjustment

“…Thus, patterns of convergence and divergence between adolescents' and parents' reports of such functioning may reflect important aspects of their interactions and how they relate to one another (De Los Reyes et al 2013c;Goodman et al 2010). In line with this view, recent work indicates that both the convergence between adolescents' and parents' reports, as well as the divergence between these reports, longitudinally predicts psychosocial outcomes among adolescents (e.g., De Los Reyes 2011; Laird and De Los Reyes 2013;Lippold et al 2013;Ohannessian and De Los Reyes 2014). Consequently, understanding patterns of adolescents' and parents' reports of family functioning may result in tools for predicting adolescent adjustment.…”

“…That is, not all adolescents and parents diverge in their reports about the family. In fact, within samples of adolescent-parent dyads, some provide reports that converge quite highly with each other whereas other dyads do not (e.g., De Los Reyes et al 2010;Lippold et al 2013). Further, among those adolescent-parent dyads who evidence divergence between their reports, sometimes it is because the parent views family functioning more favorably than the adolescent, and sometimes the reverse is the case and the adolescent views the family more favorably than the parent (e.g., Lippold et al 2011Lippold et al , 2014Yaban et al 2014).…”

“…Other approaches possess similar capabilities and have been successfully implemented in the study of informant discrepancies. These include metaanalysis of cross-informant correspondence (e.g., Achenbach et al 1987;De Los Reyes et al 2015b), direct assessment of discrepant views (i.e., via structured interview: De Los Reyes et al 2012, 2013d, nested repeated measures analytic models (e.g., generalized estimating equations; Alfano et al 2015;Augenstein et al 2016;De Los Reyes et al 2013b); and person-centered models (e.g., latent class analysis; De Los Reyes et al 2009, 2011, 2016a, 2013aLippold et al 2011Lippold et al , 2013Lippold et al , 2014. In line with this recent work, a key aim of this Special Issue is to report recent work on discrepancies between adolescents' and parents' reports of family functioning, using these emerging measurement and analytic models.…”

“…For instance, as we discuss below, in some cases convergence between reports may reflect the presence of family environment factors that either protect against or pose risk for the development of poor psychosocial outcomes. We focus on adolescent development and the adolescent-parent relationship, in light of the empirical support for focusing on these domains (e.g., Laird and De Los Reyes 2013;Lippold et al 2011Lippold et al , 2013Lippold et al , 2014. That being said, other domains may also be relevant to understanding patterns of convergence and/or divergence between adolescents' and parents' reports about the family (e.g., parents' psychosocial functioning).…”

Parental Knowledge of Adolescents’ Online Content and Contact Risks

“…For example, the amount of information a child discloses to the parents is found to be related to the child's evaluation of the parents' monitoring efforts, i.e., the extent to which the child believes that their parents make sufficient monitoring efforts when comparing to "what a good parent might do" (Cottrell et al 2015). Another study found that child disclosure is more likely to occur when parents also engage in certain knowledge-related behaviors, such as parental attempts to solicit information (Lippold et al 2013). A longitudinal Dutch study found a reciprocal relationship between parental solicitation for information and adolescents' disclosure, whereby both constructs positively predicted each other over time (Keijsers et al 2010).…”