Early Adolescents' Reasoning About Secretive Parental Monitoring and Lying: Assessing Covert Strategies for Monitoring Risky Behaviors

INTRODUCTION: Early adolescence is a period characterized by increased desire for autonomy and increased risk-taking. At times, this combination leads parents to surreptitiously engage in covert monitoring to keep tabs on their adolescents. Whereas substantial research has investigated adolescent information management and lying, little is known about the development of adolescents' reasoning about parents' covert monitoring and lying. Our aim was to better understand these reasoning processes, by examining how they vary with age and as a function of risk assessment and monitoring strategy. METHODS: Using linear mixed-effects models, we analyzed the reasoning of an ethnically diverse US sample of 152 adolescents (10-14-year-olds, 70 female). Through clinical interviews, adolescents evaluated hypothetical vignettes depicting same-aged peers engaged in six forms of risky behavior, and parents who engaged in six forms of covert monitoring, which they lied about. RESULTS: Adolescents broadly rejected covert parental monitoring and lies about their monitoring. However, judgments hinged on both the invasiveness of the monitoring strategy and the type of risk, and shifted with age. Invasive monitoring was rejected more than less invasive strategies, and monitoring was accepting to a greater extent in higher-risk situations. DISCUSSION: The findings show that while adolescents would have preferred open communication and honesty, they did not view parents' monitoring strategies or deception in uniform ways. Adolescents' judgments and justifications provide insight into the ways in which they coordinate and draw priorities among concerns with honesty, privacy, and safety, and parents' legitimate interest and authority over certain behaviors.