Parental supervision of children and adolescents
Parental supervision protects boisterous children from injury: More time unsupervised corresponds to more injury “To my parents we were just two girls in the bedroom” . What exactly was going on? Without adequate supervision the parents of this teenager never found out; the memories returned to haunt her in adulthood. Studies comparing children with and without parental supervision show that lax parental supervision is associated with injury in toddlers and preschoolers; conduct problems in school going children; and road accidents, addictions, gambling and sexual risk taking in teenagers. Parental supervision has three dimensions (Gitanjali 2004) Attention - watching or listening Proximity - within or beyond reach Continuity - constant, intermittent, or not at all Two factors determine the degree to which a child would be left unsupervised (Morrongiello 2008) Parent’s conscientiousness - the more conscientious the parent more the sup...