Child maltreatment, parent-child relationship quality, and parental monitoring in relation to adolescent behavior problems: Disaggregating between and within person effects.

Background: Parent-child relationship quality (PCRQ) and parental monitoring (PM) are associated with adolescent behavior problems following child maltreatment (CM). Whether these associations are best characterized as between (trait) or within-person (state) differences is unknown.

Objective: Disaggregate between and within-person effects for PCRQ and PM on adolescent behavior problems and test whether these effects vary as a function of prior CM.

Participants And Setting: Participants (n = 941) are from the Longitudinal Studies on Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN).

Methods: Multi-level modeling was employed using PCRQ, PM, and adolescent behaviors assessed at ages 12, 14, and 16 and confirmed CM prior to age 12.

Results: At the between-person level, adolescents with higher average levels of PCRQ and PM had significantly lower initial levels of externalizing (b = -9.47 and -5.54, respectively, p's < 0.05; possible range 0-66) and internalizing behaviors (b = -4.45 and -6.41, respectively, p's < 0.001; possible range 0-62). At the within-person level, greater declines in externalizing and internalizing behaviors were found when individuals reported higher-than-usual levels of PCRQ (b = -4.99 and -2.59, respectively, for externalizing and internalizing, p's < 0.001) and PM (b = -3.58 and -1.69, respectively, for externalizing and internalizing, p's < 0.001). There was an interaction between PM and CM on internalizing behaviors over time (b = -1.15, p = 0.026).

Conclusions: There are between and within-person effects of PCRQ and PM on adolescent behavior problems. Adolescents with CM histories and low levels of PM may be at risk for sustained internalizing behaviors.