Parental Monitoring and Risk Behaviors and Experiences Among High School Students — Youth Risk Behavior Survey, United States, 2021

Discussion

This report provides the first national prevalence estimates of adolescents’ experience of parental monitoring among U.S. high school students. Analyses of data collected in fall 2021 estimated that most students reported high levels of parental monitoring, defined in this report as parent knowledge of where a student was going and with whom. Although differences occurred in experience of parental monitoring by sex, race and ethnicity, sexual identity, and grade, overall 86% of students across all groups said their parents knew where they were and with whom they would be.

Associations between levels of students’ experience of parental monitoring and behaviors and experiences that affect the health and well-being of adolescents, including sexual behaviors, substance use, violence, mental health, and suicide-related behaviors, also were examined. For all behaviors and experiences included in this report, high parental monitoring was associated with lower risk for negative outcomes. Of note, the measure of parental monitoring used in this report reflects students’ perceptions of whether their parents know where they are and with whom. This measure might indicate various interrelated factors, including parental behaviors (e.g., positive communication and inquiry) and adolescent disclosure, and might reflect positive parent-child relationships and family connectedness. Previous research has found that adolescents’ perceptions of parents’ knowledge of their whereabouts and companions are influenced by both solicitation of information by parents and relationship satisfaction reported by adolescents (5). The multidimensional nature of the construct indicates that it is related to a broad set of behaviors (i.e., activities in which adolescents engage, such as sex and substance use) and experiences (i.e., things that happen to adolescents). The multiple factors likely influencing whether students disclose their whereabouts and companions to their parents might be related in different ways to the outcomes of interest and might lead to different promotion strategies.

For instance, parental knowledge of students’ whereabouts can prevent opportunities for engaging in risk behaviors or for spending time with peers who might promote such behaviors (1,3,6). In this report, high parental monitoring was inversely related to student reports of ever having sex, multiple sex partners, and for male students, increased prevalence of condom use. These findings support previous research demonstrating that parental monitoring positively affects decisions about sexual activity among young persons (4–7). Similarly, observed relations between parental monitoring and decreased substance use in this report are congruent with analyses from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, other longitudinal studies (12), and parenting interventions targeting adolescent substance use (3).

High parental monitoring also was related to lower prevalence of electronic bullying victimization and forced sex. Previous studies have found that collaborative parental monitoring strategies (e.g., those focused on communication) are associated with lower cyber-bullying victimization and perpetration, and family connectedness is associated with decreased experience of violence victimization and perpetration (2,7,8). Building strong relationships with parents and other prosocial adults might be an especially important protection for students at increased risk for violence (7,8). CDC’s youth violence and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) technical packages provide examples of the best available evidence for the prevention of youth violence and ACEs, including parenting skills and family relationship programs that support caregivers and teach communication, problem-solving, and behavior monitoring and management skills (13,14).

In this report, a strong relation was found between students’ perceptions of parental monitoring and improved mental health and decreased suicidality. High parental monitoring was associated with lower likelihood of reporting symptoms of poor mental health, including feeling sad and hopeless and having attempted suicide. This finding adds to studies that have found a weak negative association between parental monitoring and depression (9). In another study, parental monitoring also was negatively correlated with suicidality, self-injury, and depression, such that increased monitoring was associated with decreased poor outcomes (10). The link between parental knowledge of companions and whereabouts and students’ mental health and suicidality is less direct. This link aligns, however, with other research on family relationships and connectedness (15), suggesting that monitoring knowledge expressed by students is likely the result of positive relationships rather than parental control of activities. In fact, parental monitoring strategies that facilitate involvement, information sharing, and parental warmth and support have demonstrated potential for reducing risks for poor mental health outcomes (https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/pdf/preventionresource.pdf).

Overall, parental monitoring had universal positive effects across all domains of risk behavior and experiences investigated in this report. Systematic reviews of parental monitoring literature have found similar protective associations between parental monitoring and youth risk behaviors, including substance use and risky sexual activity (2–4,6). However, among students with a history of social isolation and societal marginalization, including those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, questioning, or other, effectiveness of parental monitoring has been tied to strategies that focus on the establishment of positive home environments and family relationships where students are comfortable disclosing information and feel accepted, rather than just focus on limiting opportunities for sexual activity (16). The findings discussed in this report warrant further exploration and research on specific aspects of parental monitoring and engagement that are most strongly tied to positive youth health behaviors and outcomes.