Who’s Keeping an Eye on the Kids? Changes in Monitoring During Emerging Adulthood

Previous research indicates that parental monitoring protects adolescents from delinquency. While, emerging adults spend increasing amounts of time outside the family setting, they often remain in or return to reside in the parental home, possibly prolonging the period of parental monitoring. We exa...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hill, Jessica M. (Author)
Contributors: Blokland, Arie Aart Jan 1973-
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2025
In: International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology
Year: 2025, Volume: 69, Issue: 8, Pages: 995-1038
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Keywords:
selfcontrol
Life Course
Delinquency
Parental monitoring
Emerging adulthood
Description
Summary:Previous research indicates that parental monitoring protects adolescents from delinquency. While, emerging adults spend increasing amounts of time outside the family setting, they often remain in or return to reside in the parental home, possibly prolonging the period of parental monitoring. We examine whether parental monitoring, differentiating between child disclosure, parental solicitation, and parental control, is a protective factor for delinquency for emerging adults. We also examine whether monitoring occurs in educational settings, by the partner or in employment settings, and whether this monitoring is associated with delinquency. We use data from a longitudinal survey of 970 Dutch emerging adults (18–24 years), to examine monitoring, using instruments based on Stattin and Kerr’s parental monitoring scale. Results indicate that parental monitoring is not associated with delinquency in emerging adulthood. Furthermore, we find no evidence of the protective role of monitoring in educational settings, by the partner or in employment settings. However, the negative relationship between monitoring of the self, self-control, delinquency during emerging adulthood increases in strength.
ISSN:1552-6933
DOI:10.1177/0306624X231219219