Parental Knowledge and Youth Risky Behavior: A Person Oriented Approach
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EMPIRICAL RESEARCH
Parental Knowledge and Youth Risky Behavior: A Person Oriented Approach Melissa A. Lippold • Mark T. Greenberg Linda M. Collins
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Received: 21 August 2012 / Accepted: 15 December 2012 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2012
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, CommunicationFocused, 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
M. A. Lippold (&) The Center for Healthy Aging, The Pennsylvania State University, 118 Henderson Bldg., University Park, PA 16802, USA e-mail: [email protected] M. T. Greenberg L. M. Collins The Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, 112 Henderson South Building, University Park, PA 16802, USA e-mail: [email protected] L. M. Collins e-mail: [email protected] L. M. Collins The Methodology Center, The Pennsylvania State University, 204 E. Calder Way, Suite 400, State College, PA 16801, USA
knowledge and risky behavior during early adolescence and intervention implications. Keywords Parenting Parental knowledge Problem behavior Substance use Delinquency
Introduction Low levels of parental knowledge about youth activities have been associated with high levels of adolescent problem behaviors, such as delinquency and substance use (Crouter and Head 2002). Parent, youth, and joint parent– youth behaviors all may lead to parental knowledge. Parents may seek information by soliciting information from youth or by directly supervising and observing youth activities (Dishion and McMahon 1998; Crouter and Head 2002). Youth may manage the information they share with their parents, and may choose to disclose some information, while hiding other information (Kerr et al. 2010). The combination of both parent actions (Fletcher et al. 2004) and youth actions (Stattin and Kerr 2000) may be associated with parental knowledge of youth activities. To date, most studies on parental knowledge attempt to parse out the effects of one specific knowledge-related behavior on youth outcomes. Yet, knowledge-related behaviors do not occur in isolation; parents and youth are likely engaging in
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