Relations of Parenting to Adolescent Externalizing and Internalizing Distress Moderated by Perception of Neighborhood Danger

Parental monitoring and warmth have traditionally been studied in the context of White, middle-class families. This article explores optimal levels of these parenting behaviors in preventing adolescent psychopathology in impoverished, urban high-crime areas while accounting for child perceptions of neighborhood danger. In this study, data were collected longitudinally at 2 time points 1 year apart from a sample of 254 African American young adolescents (T1: M age = 12.6 years, 41% male) and their parents. Parental monitoring and warmth, child perception of neighborhood danger, and child internalizing and externalizing behaviors were measured using questionnaires. Child internalizing behaviors were also measured using a time sampling technique capturing in vivo accounts of daily distress. Findings indicated associations between parental monitoring and children's externalizing behaviors along with linear and quadratic associations between parental monitoring and internalizing behaviors. Monitoring and warmt...