Adolescent-Mother Agreements and Discrepancies in Reports of Daily Maternal Monitoring: Associations With Adolescents' Emotional Functioning.

INTRODUCTION

Adolescents' and parents' (in)congruent reports of parental monitoring might be associated with youths' emotional functioning. This daily diary study examined how (dis)agreements in adolescent-mother reports of both overt (i.e., solicitation and behavioral control) and covert monitoring were related to adolescents' daily emotion dysregulation and affective well-being.

METHODS

Participants were 208 adolescents (MT1age = 15.0; 56.7% female) and their mothers (MT1age = 42.63) in Mainland China. They completed a baseline survey (December 7-10, 2023), followed by a 21-day daily survey (December 11-31, 2023).

RESULTS

Adolescents showed increased emotion dysregulation and positive affect on days when dyads agreed that overt monitoring was greater than usual. Additionally, youth emotion dysregulation and negative affect were heightened on days when dyads agreed that covert monitoring was greater than usual. Regarding reporter disagreements, adolescents experienced greater emotion dysregulation on days when adolescent-reported overt and covert monitoring exceeded mothers' reports. A non-robust curvilinear pattern was observed in which adolescent emotion dysregulation was greatest on days when dyads agreed that behavioral control and covert monitoring were at moderate levels, followed by high levels.

CONCLUSIONS

Results support the notion that overt monitoring can be a "double-edged" sword for adolescents' emotional functioning, while covert monitoring is a consistent emotional risk. Findings also indicate that adolescents' subjective perceptions of covert monitoring, rather than the undetected presence of such strategies, are a risk factor for their emotion dysregulation.