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Parental Knowledge: Examining Reporter Discrepancies and Links to School Engagement Among Middle School Studies

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Abstract

It is well established that parental knowledge contributes to adolescents’ well-being and school success and scholars have noted that parents and adolescents report different levels of knowledge. Discrepancies in parental knowledge have implications for adolescent outcomes such as risk behaviors, but little is known about the implications of knowledge discrepancies for adolescents’ school outcomes. The present study examined discrepancies in parent and adolescent reports of parental knowledge and investigated the extent to which knowledge discrepancies were linked to school engagement. Participants were early adolescents (N = 174; 53 % female) and their parents (90 % mothers). Adolescents (57 % African American/Black, 18 % multiracial, 17 % White/Caucasian, 7 % Hispanic/Latino and 1 % Asian American) attended a Midwestern, Title 1, urban, public middle school. Adolescents completed surveys in their homerooms and parents completed paper–pencil surveys at home or surveys via telephone. Results showed that parents reported more knowledge of adolescents’ activities and whereabouts compared to adolescents’ reports. Knowledge discrepancies were associated with school bonding and school self-esteem such that dyads in which adolescents reported more knowledge than their parents reported had significantly higher levels of school bonding and school self-esteem compared to dyads in which parents reported much more knowledge.

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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.

Author Contributions

AD conceived of the study and its design, participated in data collection, conducted statistical analyses, provided interpretation of the data, and contributed portions of the writing of this manuscript. EW contributed to the conceptualization of this study, conducted statistical analyses, provided interpretation of the data and contributed portions of the writing of this manuscript. Both authors read an approved the final version of this article.

Funding

Funding for this research was provided in part by the Purdue Research Foundation [205284] and the Kinley Trust [204589].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Utah State University, 2905 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT, 84322-2905, USA

    Aryn M. Dotterer

  2. Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Purdue University, 1200 W. State St., West Lafayette, IN, 47907-2055, USA

    Elizabeth Wehrspann

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  1. Aryn M. Dotterer
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Correspondence to Aryn M. Dotterer.

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Research Involving Human Participants

All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of Institutional Review Board, Human Research Protection Program at Purdue University and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all adult participants in the study. Informed consent for all minors participating in the study was obtained from legal guardians; minors also provided informed assent.

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Dotterer, A.M., Wehrspann, E. Parental Knowledge: Examining Reporter Discrepancies and Links to School Engagement Among Middle School Studies. J Youth Adolescence 45, 2431–2443 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-016-0550-y

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