1. Do you know where your children are?: Parental monitoring in Mexican American families as a function of parent gender, child gender, and reporter Melinda E. Baham (ASU), Sanford L. Braver (ASU), Michele Adams (TU), Scott Coltrane (UCR), Eric Vega (UCR), Delia Saenz (ASU), Jeffrey T. Cookston (SFSU), & Karina R. Horowitz (ASU) Arizona State University (ASU), Tulane University (TU), University of California, Riverside (UCR), & San Francisco State University (SFSU)

2. Fathers are Important Fathers have traditionally been understudied Research with European Americans has found that fathering makes a substantial difference in child outcomes over and above the influence of mothering

3. Importance of studying Mexican-Americans Mexican American (MA) families, particularly fathers, are traditionally understudied in the literature This is an especially important omission given that MA families are the largest minority group in the U.S. However, researchers have recently begun to investigate the parenting practices of MA and the implications of such practices on various outcomes

4. Parenting Practices in MA One such practice is that of parental monitoring: the knowledge a parent has about his child’s whereabouts and activities Several researchers (McNeal, 1999, Amato & Fowler, 2002) have found that higher levels of parental monitoring were associated with lower drop-out rates and lower levels of later deviance among Latinos Authoritative parenting, characterized in part by parental monitoring, related positively to academic success in Latino adolescents (Steinberg, Mounts, Lamborn, & Dornbusch, 1991). Related to parental monitoring is the extent of the parent’s knowledge of the child’s nightly whereabouts

5. Do MA Dads Treat Sons and Daughters differently? A common anecdotal belief among many MA families is that fathers have stricter rules for their daughters as compared to their sons Mothers are not thought to have such a bias Research on families in Mexico during the 1960s suggested that although men had a large amount of autonomy, women were restricted (Cauce & Domenech- Rodriguez, 2000) Additional research indicates that MA parents may be more resistant in allowing their daughters to attend college (Lopez, 1995) Taken together, these suggest that MA fathers may be more concerned with the nightly whereabouts of their daughters than with their sons’ locations

6. Current Study Very little prior research has been conducted to test the veracity of the belief that MA fathers treat their daughters differently The current study examines:  Whether Mexican-American fathers treat their daughters differently from their sons with respect to their knowledge of the child’s nightly activities  Whether this differential treatment occurs among mothers

7. Method – Sample and Recruitment Parents and Youth Study (PAYS) is a two- site, 5 year longitudinal study that is investigating the role of fathers in adolescent development Also focused on potential mediators that may influence the effects of fathers’ behaviors on adolescent outcomes and the influence of various family characteristics (culture; intact vs. step-families)

8. Method – Sample and Recruitment con. Adolescents in the 7 th grade were recruited from various schools in the Phoenix, AZ and San Bernardino/Riverside, CA areas Approximately 100 families in each of the 4 populations of interest:  Anglo Intact (both biological parents) families  Anglo Step-father families  Mexican-American Intact families  Mexican-American Step-father families All 3 family members must be of the same ethnic background

9. Method – Sample and Recruitment ASU For the Arizona site, adolescents from 8 participating schools filled out information cards to determine study eligibility A ‘school recruiter’ reviewed the cards and sorted them into eligible and ineligible families Randomly selected families who met eligibility requirements were contacted by the recruiter and invited to participate

10. Method – Sample and Recruitment UCR For the California site, a school recruiter made telephone calls and sent mailers to adolescents from 12 participating schools For 6 schools, the recruiter made phone calls to families and if they were eligible and interested in the study, their contact information was forwarded to the UCR staff, who then contacted the family For the other 6 schools, the UCR staff mailed families information about the project and interested families contacted UCR and were briefly interviewed to determine eligibility

11. Method – Final Overall Sample 392 adolescents, mothers, and fathers (or step-fathers) participated in the overall study  110 Anglo Intact families  89 Anglo Step-father families  107 Mexican-American Intact families  86 Mexican-American Step-father families

12. Method – Procedures Interviews were conducted in the family’s home; each family member was interviewed individually by a different interviewer Interviews were conducted in the participant’s preferred language Prior to the interview, children gave assent, and mothers and stepfathers gave informed consent Families were financially compensated for their time

13. Method - Participants This study includes 214 MA and EA adolescents and their parents (intact families) Adolescents were in the 7 th grade at the time of interview 103 boys (111 girls) 107 EA (48.6% male), 107 MA (47.7% male) Average Ages:  Adolescent: 12.4 years (SD=0.54), range 11-14  Mom: 40.1 years (SD=5.98), range 27-59  Dad: 41.6 years (SD=7.17), range 29-66

14. Method – Participants con. Mother’s education:  23% < high school degree  19% = high school degree  28.5% had some college  29.5% had completed an associate’s, bachelor’s, or advanced degree Father’s education:  29% < high school degree  16% = high school degree  29% had some college  26% had completed an associate’s, bachelor’s, or advanced degree Median household income = $55K (range $4.2K – $430K)

15. Method - Measures Mothers and fathers were asked to report how much they knew about their child’s nightly whereabouts  “In the last three months, how often did you have no idea of where your child was at night?”  Responses ranged from 0 (Never) to 4 (Most of the time)  Item was reverse scored so that higher values indicated more knowledge Adolescents also reported how much their mothers and fathers knew about their location at night  “In the last three months, how often did your mother/father have no idea of where you were at night?” This is referred to as the “11 o’clock” item

16. Results Goal: To examine whether MA fathers monitor their daughters and sons differently, if the same is true for mothers, and to investigate the role played by reporter A 2 (adolescent’s gender: male vs. female) × 2 (reporter: parent vs. adolescent) × 2 (target parent: about father vs. about mother) mixed-model ANOVA was conducted

17. Results continued A significant two way interaction between child gender and reporter According to the parents, they knew slightly (non-significant) more about their boy’s whereabouts as opposed to their girl’s  F(1, 210) = 2.81, p =.10, Mboys = 3.86, Mgirls = 3.74 According to the children themselves there was a highly significant difference, with the whereabouts of the girls being much more well known  F(1, 210) = 6.04, p =.02, Mboys = 3.20, Mgirls = 3.58

18. Fig. 1: Monitoring by gender and reporter

19. Results continued This finding, however, was further qualified by a significant three-way interaction, F(1, 210) = 3.67, p =.05, which indicated that the previously discussed pattern varied by target parent. Girls report that both parents know more about their whereabouts than boys report (F(1, 210) = 6.04, p =.02, Mdads monitor girls = 3.5, Mmoms monitor girls = 3.66, Mdads monitor boys = 3.06, Mmoms monitor girls = 3.33)

20. Fig 2: Child’s Report

21. Results continued According to parent report, fathers know much more about their boys whereabouts than their girls  (F(1, 210) = 6.11, p =.02, Mboys = 3.85, Mgirls = 3.52) Mothers showed similar levels of knowledge regardless of gender  (F(1, 210) = 1.35, p =.25, Mboys = 3.86, Mgirls = 3.95)

22. Fig 3: Parent’s Report

23. Discussion Overall, parents have substantial knowledge about their children’s whereabouts at night  (lowest mean was 3.06 which indicates that parents don’t know where their children are on only a few rare occasions) However, parents and adolescents disagree about the extent of the parent’s knowledge of the child’s nightly whereabouts  It is of interest to continue to ask both parents and adolescents about their perception of the parent’s knowledge

24. Discussion continued Gender differences: Specifically, girls perceive that both their fathers and their mothers know more about their nightly whereabouts compared to boys Interestingly, fathers and daughters agree on how much dads are aware of their girls behavior (Ms= 3.52, 3.50) However, fathers perceive knowing much more about their sons whereabouts than their daughters, and sons report their dads knowing much less about their whereabouts than girls

25. Future Directions Taken together, these finding suggest the complexity of Mexican-American families Underscore the importance of future research examining differences in parental knowledge as perceived by adolescent and parent Additional research should focus on how these differences might influence various outcomes

26. THANK YOU!