Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #106332

Jessica Miller Rath, PhD, MPH, CHES¹, Andrea C. Gielen, ScD, ScM, CHES², Denise L. Haynie, PhD, MPH³, Barry Solomon, MD, MPH⁴, Tina Cheng, MD, MPH⁵, and Bruce G. Simons-Morton, EdD, MPH³. (1) Health Policy and Management, Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Hampton House, 624 North Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, (301) 435-6932, jemiller@jhsph.edu, (2) Health Policy and Management, Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 624 N. Broadway, HH-750, Baltimore, MD 21205, (3) Prevention Research Branch, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, DHHS, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892, (4) Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205, (5) General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Park 392, Baltimore, MD 21287

Numerous studies have demonstrated a positive relationship between parental academic monitoring and adolescent academic achievement. Less is known about specific youth factors associated with parental academic monitoring in a low-income, African American population. Factors include perceived parental support, friend pro-social behavior, youth pro-social behavior and academic engagement.

Data were collected from incoming 6th graders at an urban middle school. Adolescents received a computer- assisted interview questionnaire to measure attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors surrounding academic engagement and aggression. Data were analyzed as cross-sectional using the responses of 111 African American adolescents, ages 10-14 years. Adolescents were classified into two groups; low perceived academic monitoring and high perceived academic monitoring. Logistic regression determined youth factors related to parental academic monitoring.

Adolescent's perceived parental general support, such as “having a parent who they turn to for advice with personal problems,” remained a predictor of perceived parental academic monitoring when controlling for age, gender, family composition, friend pro-social behavior, youth pro-social behavior, and academic engagement (OR:2.22, 1.38-3.56). Adolescents living with one biological parent and with other adults were more likely to perceive their parents academic monitoring as low compared to adolescents living with one biological parent and no other adults (OR: 3.54, 1.10-11.37).

Youth report that parents who provide their adolescents with general support also monitor their youth's academics. Results from this study begin to explain factors related to academic monitoring from the youth's perspective, so that family based interventions can be successful in increasing parental academic monitoring.

Learning Objectives:

• List one youth factor associated with parental academic monitoring.
• Describe the relationship between academic monitoring and providing adolescents with general support.

Keywords: Family Involvement, Adolescent Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.