The current study tested whether greater monitoring by mothers and greater disclosure by early adolescents was linked to greater agreement in mothers' and adolescents' reports of rule-breaking behavior. In doing so, the article demonstrated how polynomial regression analyses can be used to test hypotheses in which informant discrepancies serve as the dependent variable. Data were obtained from 218 mother-adolescent dyads (M adolescent age = 11.5 years, 51% female, 49% European American, 47% African American). Mothers and early adolescents provided reports of their perceptions of maternal monitoring (i.e., solicitation and control through rules), adolescent disclosure, and adolescent rule-breaking behavior. Polynomial regression models tested monitoring and disclosure as moderators of the association between mothers' and adolescents' reports of the adolescents' rule-breaking behavior. Mothers' reports of rule-breaking behavior were more strongly associated with adolescents' reports of their own rule-breaking behavior when mothers reported engaging in more solicitation or control through rules. There was less agreement in mothers' and adolescents' reports of rule breaking when adolescents reported that their mothers engaged in more solicitation. Adolescent disclosure did not moderate agreement in reported rule-breaking behavior. Greater monitoring by mothers may reduce the discrepancy in mother-adolescent reports of rule-breaking behavior. Findings also demonstrate the greater validity of polynomial regression approaches over difference scores when testing hypotheses with informant agreement as the outcome.

This study sought to identify conditions under which parents' monitoring behaviors are most strongly linked to adolescents' negative reactions (i.e., feelings of being controlled and invaded). 242 adolescents (49.2% male; M age = 15.4 years) residing in the United States of America reported parental monitoring and warmth, and their own feelings of being controlled and invaded and beliefs in the legitimacy of parental authority. Analyses tested whether warmth and legitimacy beliefs moderate and/or suppress the link between parents' monitoring behaviors and adolescents' negative reactions. Monitoring was associated with more negative reactions, controlling for legitimacy beliefs and warmth. More monitoring was associated with more negative reactions only at weaker levels of legitimacy beliefs, and at lower levels of warmth. The link between monitoring and negative reactions is sensitive to the context within which monitoring occurs with the strongest negative reactions found in contexts characterized by low warmth and weak legitimacy beliefs.