The growing influence of the parental monitoring-peer affiliation pathway in early adolescence.

Adolescence is often characterized as a period of decreasing parental influence as youth spend more time with peers. However, parents continue to play a role in managing peer affiliations, which has implications for adolescent adjustment. In the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study (N = 10,949 at 2-year follow-up [ages 10-13 years], N = 4,747 at 4-year follow-up [ages 12-15 years]; 52% female and 52% non-Hispanic White at baseline), we examined whether peer affiliations mediate associations between parental monitoring and youth adjustment, and explored whether these pathways become more or less influential across early adolescence. Youth reported on parental monitoring, peer affiliations, prosocial behavior, psychopathology, and impulsivity. At both timepoints, greater parental monitoring was indirectly associated with more prosocial behavior and less internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms, and impulsivity via fewer rule-breaking peer affiliations and more positive peer affiliations. Although parental monitoring declined and rule-breaking peer affiliations increased over time, indirect effects through rule-breaking peer affiliations were stronger at the second than first timepoint. Indirect effects through positive peer affiliations, and direct effects of parental monitoring and peer affiliations, remained stable. These findings suggest that early adolescence may be a period when parental monitoring becomes increasingly important for peer affiliations and positive youth adjustment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).