Parental Monitoring and Youth's Binge Behaviors: The Role of Sensation Seeking and Life Satisfaction

ABSTRACT

Framed within an ecological perspective of the onset of adolescent problem behaviors, the current study explored the joint role of parent-adolescents’ relationships and youth's individual factors in binge eating and drinking. Firstly, in line with pieces of research highlighting the beneficial impact of effective parenting on youth development, the present paper sought to enhance the knowledge about the positive influence of parental monitoring on youth's binge drinking and eating. Moreover, since literature evidenced that the explanatory mechanisms of the association between parental monitoring and binge behaviors are not fully explored, the study focused on the potential intervening role of sensation seeking and life satisfaction as mediators. The study design was cross-sectional and self-report questionnaires were administered among a population of 944 high school students (M = 16.35, SD = 1.31) living in Palermo (Italy). Path analysis showed that parental monitoring was directly and negatively related to both binge eating and binge drinking. Moreover, sensation seeking negatively mediated the relationships between parental monitoring and both binge behaviors, whereas life satisfaction only mediated between parental monitoring and binge eating. The current study provided data useful to understand the complex interrelations between intrapersonal (life satisfaction and personality trait, i.e. sensation seeking) and contextual factors (parent–child relationships) that may discourage or cause eating and alcohol use disorders among youth. Finally, implications for parents and practitioners working with youngsters were discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Binge eating
• binge drinking
• life satisfaction
• adolescence
• sensation seeking

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cristiano Inguglia

Cristiano Inguglia is an Assistant Professor of Developmental and Educational Psychology at the University of Palermo (Italy). His research interests focus on the relationships between autonomy, relatedness, parenting dimensions and psychological well-being in adolescence and emerging adulthood.

Sebastiano Costa

Sebastiano Costa is an Assistant Professor at the University of Campania (Italy). His research interests focus on the motivational processes and emotional dynamics underlying the relation between contextual factor and psychological well‐being in several settings.

Nicolò Maria Iannello

Nicolò Maria Iannello is research fellow at the University of Calabria (Italy). His research interests focus on adolescents’ and emerging adults’ psychological well-being.

Francesca Liga

Francesca Liga is Associate Professor of Developmental and Educational Psychology at the University of Messina (Italy). Her research areas focus on different aspects of developmental psychology, particularly regarding risk and protective factors in adolescence and the process of adolescents’ individuation