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Parental Monitoring, Parental Warmth, and Minority Youths’ Academic Outcomes: Exploring the Integrative Model of Parenting

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Abstract

Guided by the integrative model of parenting, the present study investigated the relationship between parental monitoring and racial/ethnic minority adolescents’ school engagement and academic motivation as a function of parental warmth, and explored whether these associations varied for boys and girls. Participants (60 % female) were 208 sixth through eighth grade students (63 % African American, 19 % Latino, 18 % Multiracial) from an urban middle school in the Midwestern United States. Youth completed an in-school survey with items on parenting (parental monitoring, mothers’/fathers’ warmth), cognitive engagement (school self-esteem), behavioral engagement (school trouble), and academic motivation (intrinsic motivation). As hypothesized, mothers’ warmth enhanced the association between parental monitoring and youths’ engagement and motivation. No gender differences in these associations emerged. Fathers’ warmth strengthened the negative association between parental monitoring and school trouble, and this association was stronger for boys. Implications regarding the importance of sustaining a high level of monitoring within the context of warm parent–adolescent relationships to best support academic outcomes among minority youth are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the graduate and undergraduate research assistants who helped carry out this study. We are especially indebted to the adolescents and their families whose participation made this research possible. Funding for this research was provided in part by the Purdue Research Foundation and the Kinley Trust.

Author contributions

K.L. contributed to the conceptualization of this study, participated in collecting the study data, performed the statistical analysis and interpretation of the data, and contributed major portions of the writing for the initial draft of the manuscript and its revision. A.D. conceived of the study and its design, participated in data collection, assisted with the interpretation of the data and contributed portions of the writing for the initial draft of the manuscript and its revision.

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  1. Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Purdue University, 1202 West State St., West Lafayette, IN, 47907-2055, USA

    Katie Lowe & Aryn M. Dotterer

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  1. Katie Lowe
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Correspondence to Katie Lowe.

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Lowe, K., Dotterer, A.M. Parental Monitoring, Parental Warmth, and Minority Youths’ Academic Outcomes: Exploring the Integrative Model of Parenting. J Youth Adolescence 42, 1413–1425 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-013-9934-4

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