Citation

Coley RL, Hoffman LW. J. Appl. Dev. Psychol. 1996; 17(1): 51-68.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Interactions among supervision and monitoring, maternal marital status, and neighborhood safety and their relations to child outcomes were examined using a sample of 355 third- and fourth-grade students in a large midwestern city. Three levels of supervision were considered: no adult supervision or monitoring, no adult supervision with distal parent monitoring, and full-time adult supervision. Results show that, although supervision and monitoring do not produce any main effects on children's social, emotional, and cognitive functioning, interactions between supervision and contextual variables do produce significant effects. These effects differ according to the outcome variable studied. Neighborhood crime rates were found to moderate the effects of supervision on children's behaviors, peer relations, locus of control, and language achievement. Although children in dangerous neighborhoods who experience low supervision and monitoring showed good behaviors and language skills, they also showed lower self-efficacy. Maternal marital status moderated effects of supervision on children's school achievement, with a lack of supervision and monitoring relating to low achievement for children in single-parent but not married-parent households. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of considering contextual factors when searching for effects of parenting practices on children's development.