What is Parental Monitoring?

Abstract

Parental monitoring is a construct of longstanding interest in multiple fields-but what is it? This paper makes two contributions to the ongoing debate. First, we review how the published literature has defined and operationalized parental monitoring. We show that the monitoring construct has often been defined in an indirect and nonspecific fashion and measured using instruments that vary widely in conceptual content. The result has been a disjointed empirical literature that cannot accurately be described as the unified study of a single construct nor is achieving a cumulative scientific character. Second, we offer a new formulation of the monitoring construct intended to remedy this situation. We define parental monitoring as the set of all behaviors performed by caregivers with the goal of acquiring information about the youth's activities and life. We introduce a taxonomy identifying 5 distinct types of monitoring behaviors (Types 1-5), with each behavior varying along five dimensions (performer, target, frequency, context, style). We distinguish parental monitoring from 16 other parenting constructs it is often conflated with and position monitoring as one element within the broader parent-youth monitoring process: the continuous, dyadic interplay between caregivers and youth as they navigate caregivers attempts' to monitor youth. By offering an explicit and detailed conceptualization of monitoring, we aim to foster more rigorous and impactful research in this area.

Keywords: Adolescence; Childhood; Parental monitoring; Parenting.

Figure 1. Publications Per Year Referencing Parental Monitoring and Related Terms in Title or Abstract, PubMed, 1970–2023

Note. Based on search for each term occurring in titles and abstracts on PubMed. Search was performed on April 15, 2024 and restricted to articles published before or during 2023. Each search included alternative terms for “parental” (e.g., maternal) or “youth” (e.g., child) where applicable.

Figure 2. Examples of the Five Types of Monitoring Behaviors

Note. Figure illustrates the taxonomy of parental monitoring behaviors described in Section 4.6 and summarized in Table 4.

Figure 3. Any Given Monitoring Behavior Can Differ Along Five Dimensions.

Note. The figure illustrates how any specific monitoring behavior can differ along five dimensions: performer, target, frequency, context, and style. Each row describes a different instance of the same monitoring behavior: the parent asking the youth about the events of the youth’s day.

Figure 4. Parental Monitoring as One Element Within the Parent-Youth Monitoring Process

Note. The figure depicts our perspective that there are likely bidirectional effects between all elements in the parent-youth monitoring process. Bidirectional effects between non-adjacent boxes (e.g., youth disclosure and youth adjustment) are omitted only to improve readability. The list of included elements is not meant to be exhaustive; the parent-youth monitoring process could be further elaborated with constructs like trust (Kerr et al., 1999) or the perceived legitimacy of parent authority (LaFleur et al., 2016).