Adolescent exposure to parental intimate partner violence and delinquency: Investigating the protective effect of parental monitoring knowledge

Exposure to parental intimate partner violence (IPV) has been linked to greater adolescent delinquency. While parental monitoring knowledge is associated with reduced delinquency, it is not yet known whether increased parental monitoring knowledge might act as a protective factor for adolescents exposed to parental IPV. This study explored parental IPV-exposure and delinquency during adolescence, and the long-term protective effect of parental monitoring knowledge on reduced delinquency levels. This study used secondary data on 4782 children and their parents from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS). Parents reported on IPV exposure at ages 11 and 14. At age 14, adolescents and their caregivers reported on parental knowledge of the adolescents' social activities, and adolescents reported on their parents' active monitoring. Self-reported delinquency was measured at ages 14 and 17. Complex samples ordinal regressions compared adolescents exposed to parental IPV for the first time during adolescence to propensity-matched controls with no current or lifetime history of parental IPV exposure. Controls were matched for gender, ethnicity, poverty status, and harsh parenting. Delinquency increased more across adolescence in IPV-exposed vs. non-IPV-exposed adolescents ( p ≤ .05), and adolescent-reported parental knowledge significantly moderated the relationship between IPV exposure and change in delinquency ( p ≤ .05). When IPV occurred during adolescence, resilience was promoted by parents possessing greater knowledge about their adolescents' social activities. Thus, parental monitoring knowledge may be critical to target as part of interventions aiming to reduce adolescent delinquency within the context of parental IPV.