Is Parental Monitoring Associated With Behavioural Health Services Utilization for Juvenile Legal System‐Involved Youth?

The present study sought to examine whether aspects of parental monitoring were associated with the use of any behavioural health supports and the types of supports used among youth with juvenile legal system (JLS) involvement. JLS‐involved youth have high rates of behavioural health concerns, and their parents are typically tasked with accessing supports for these concerns. Parental monitoring may play a key role in helping parents recognize the need for and subsequently access supports for their child; yet, the relationship between parental monitoring and behavioural health supports utilization is not well understood. A cross‐sectional sample of caregivers of JLS‐involved youth ( N = 161) recruited through a juvenile court completed measures regarding parental monitoring and behavioural health supports utilization. Descriptive statistics, logistic regressions, and hurdle models were employed to assess the association between parental monitoring and use of supports. The overall rate of services utilization was higher than in other studies of JLS‐involved youth and was largely driven by the use of non‐professional supports. Parental solicitation represented the most robust parental monitoring factor associated with services utilization and was positively associated with the use of any services, the number of services used, and several types of service use.