Pathways Between Parental Monitoring and Adolescent E-Cigarette Use: the Role of Parent-Child Internalizing and Externalizing Discrepancies in a Predominately Hispanic/Latino(a) Sample

Adolescent e-cigarette use has dramatically increased and identifying factors contributing to initiation may help inform early intervention. Parenting-related factors, such as parental knowledge and child disclosure may represent protective factors buffering against adolescent e-cigarette use. However, divergent parent and child reports of internalizing and externalizing symptoms may serve as proxies of poor relationship quality. This study examined indirect associations between parental knowledge, and, in a separate model child disclosure, parent-child discrepancies on internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and adolescent e-cigarette use. Adolescents (n = 217, M age = 14.93; 53% female, 87.56% White, 85.25% Hispanic/Latinx) and their parents were assessed at multiple time points. Participant dyads completed the Parental Monitoring Inventory (Wave 1), the Youth-Self Report/Child Behavior Checklist, and a measure assessing e-cigarette use (Hartmann et al., 2024; Wave 2; ~15 months later). Among the internalizing and externalizing discrepancies examined, divergent reports of rule breaking were significantly associated with parental knowledge and e-cigarette use, as well as child disclosure and e-cigarette use. As parental knowledge and child disclosure decreased, the discrepancy size increased, and as the discrepancy increased, adolescent e-cigarette use increased. Differences in rule-breaking reports may occur with decreased parental knowledge and/or child disclosure, potentially indicative of poor communication. Relevant to our sample, Hispanic/Latin(a) youth are strongly influenced by their parent's involvement compared to other ethnicities. Thus, prevention programs could address parent-child relationship quality and communication about rule-breaking and long-term consequences.