Commissioned Reports

Parental monitoring of adolescent’s behaviour: Trajectories, risk factors, and associated outcomes

Rochelle E. Garner
Leanne C. Findlay
Dafna E. Kohen

Health Information and Research Division, Statistics Canada

Objectives

Summary (PDF, 29 KB)

Full Report (PDF, 237 KB)
  1. To use national, longitudinal data to describe patterns of perceived parental monitoring among Canadian children through the early adolescent years (ages 10 to 15 years);

  2. To explore the associations between these patterns and several child- and family-level socio-demographic factors; and

  3. To examine the association between patterns of perceived parental monitoring and other behavioural and academic outcomes for youth aged 14 and 15.

Results

Three trajectories of perceived parental monitoring were examined. One trajectory depicted high levels of perceived parental monitoring for youth ages 10 through 15 (high monitoring group, 57% of youth), while another depicted moderate levels of parental monitoring across this age span (moderate monitoring group, 32% of youth). The third trajectory depicted levels of perceived parental monitoring that were relatively high when children were 10 years old but which dropped precipitously into early adolescence, resulting in relatively low levels of perceived parental monitoring when youth were 14 or 15 (decreasing monitoring group, 11% of youth).

Of the baseline characteristics examined (when children were 10 and 11 years old)—child gender, child birth order, parental age, single-parent family, parental education, and household income—only two distinguished youth in the moderate from youth in the high monitoring group. Children who were not first-born were more likely than first-born children to follow the moderate monitoring trajectory rather than the high monitoring pattern. Furthermore, as household income increased, the likelihood of belonging to the moderate over the high monitoring trajectory decreased. 

In models examining behavioural and academic outcomes at ages 14 and 15, as a youth’s probability of belonging to the moderate perceived parental monitoring trajectory increased, they were significantly more likely to report high levels of direct aggression, indirect aggression, and property offences, low levels of pro-social behaviour, were less likely to report completing their homework at least most of the time, and were more likely to report skipping school or ever being drunk. Findings from the present study also showed that lower levels of monitoring were associated with lower math scores, a decreased likelihood of completing homework, and increased odds of youth skipping school or being suspended. 

 

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