To read this content please select one of the options below:

Do Parental Monitoring Habits Change in Response to Juvenile Recidivism?

Caitlin Cavanagh (Michigan State University, USA)

Erica Dalzell (Michigan State University, USA)

Alyssa LaBerge (Michigan State University, USA)

Elizabeth Cauffman (University of California, Irvine, USA)

The Justice System and the Family: Police, Courts, and Incarceration

ISBN: 978-1-80382-360-7, eISBN: 978-1-80382-359-1

Publication date: 14 October 2022

Abstract

Greater parental monitoring is commonly associated with reduced delinquent behavior in adolescents, yet less is known about the extent to which parental monitoring behavior changes after a child is arrested for the first time. The present study examines the extent to which mothers’ monitoring behaviors (i.e., parental monitoring knowledge and effort) change in association with juvenile recidivism after their sons’ first arrest, operationalized through both youth-reported recidivism and official re-arrest records. Mother–son dyads (total N = 634) across three states were interviewed in two waves over 30 months following the youth’s first arrest. Mothers who reported both more monitoring knowledge and effort at Wave 1 had sons who self-reported less recidivism and were less likely to be re-arrested at Wave 2. Repeated sons’ re-arrests were associated with a change in mothers’ monitoring behavior, as both parental knowledge and parental effort significantly increased from Wave 1 to Wave 2 when youth have been re-arrested more than once, relative to youth who had never been re-arrested. No change in monitoring behaviors were observed in association with youth-reported recidivism, and mothers who stated an intention to change their monitoring habits at Wave 1 did not necessarily do so by Wave 2. The findings point to the ability of parents to modulate their monitoring behavior to respond to chronic juvenile offending. This provide an opportunity for practitioners to work with parents to improve their monitoring skills, to ensure rehabilitative gains that result from justice system intervention are maintained in the home via parental monitoring.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

The Crossroads Study is supported by funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the County of Orange. The Crossroads Mothers Study is supported by UC MEXUS, Psi Chi, and the American Psychology-Law Society. We are grateful to the many individuals responsible for the data collection and preparation.

This manuscript is based on data from the Crossroads Study and the Crossroads Mothers Study, a longitudinal study of youth who have been arrested for the first time and their mothers. The findings reported in this manuscript have not been published previously. C.C. conceived of the Crossroads Mothers study, participated in its design and coordination, performed the statistical analyses, and drafted the manuscript; E.D. participated in the interpretation of the data and helped to draft the manuscript; A.L. helped to draft the manuscript; and E.C. conceived of the Crossroads study, participated in its design, coordination, and interpretation of the data, and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. We have no known conflicts of interest to disclose.

Citation

Cavanagh, C., Dalzell, E., LaBerge, A. and Cauffman, E. (2022), "Do Parental Monitoring Habits Change in Response to Juvenile Recidivism?", Maxwell, S.R. and Blair, S.L. (Ed.) The Justice System and the Family: Police, Courts, and Incarceration (Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research, Vol. 20), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 19-38. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1530-353520220000020002

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited