Parents and adolescents growing up in the digital age: Latent growth curve analysis of proactive media monitoring

Abstract

The current study examined how parents' use of restrictive and active monitoring and deference changed over three years, and examined both adolescent and parent characteristics as predictors of initial levels of media monitoring, as well as change in media monitoring. Participants included 276 mother–child dyads (M age of child = 12.08, SD = .63, 50% female) taken from Time 2 of the Flourishing Families Project, 96% of whom had complete data for Time 4 (N = 266). Active monitoring was the most common approach at the first and second time points, while active monitoring and deference were equally common by the final time point. Latent growth curve analysis revealed that restrictive and active monitoring decreased over time, while deference increased. In addition, both adolescent and parent characteristics were predictive of initial levels of all three types of monitoring, and of change in restrictive monitoring. Discussion focuses on developmental implications of these findings.