Parental supervision and later offending: A systematic review of longitudinal studies

Abstract

Parental supervision has been identified as an important influence on offending. This systematic review focuses specifically on parental supervision, compared to existing systematic reviews which tend to concentrate on a wider range of family factors. The main aim of this article is to assess the precise nature of the association between parental supervision and offending. Overall, 19 prospective longitudinal studies were identified (published since 1996) which met the inclusion criteria. The results show a weighted mean effect size (ES) of Cohen's d = 0.37 between parental supervision and later offending. This review discovered that studies use different types of behavior to define parental supervision. Interestingly, a larger weighted mean effect size (d = 0.45) was found for studies measuring ‘level of parental knowledge’ compared to studies measuring ‘child disclosure to parents’ (d = 0.33) or ‘parental rule setting’ (d = 0.14). The results suggest that the strength of social bonds is important for enabling parents to maintain high levels of knowledge. Prevention programs should aim to develop robust channels of communication that increase parental knowledge regarding the activities of their children. Future research should also clarify the definition of parental supervision, in order to make it possible to compare different studies of parenting.