Future Directions in the Science and Practice of Parental Monitoring

The science of parental monitoring has fractured into two opposing schools of thought. One school sees the importance of monitoring as thoroughly demonstrated; the other school sees it as thoroughly debunked. This paper argues that both schools are wrong and in truth the science of parental monitoring remains a largely unmapped frontier with many open questions worthy of investigation. We begin by explaining how the field reached this peculiar status quo and why it can no longer be abided. Next, we discuss the most important open questions - (1) does monitoring matter? (importance), (2) how does monitoring work? (mechanisms), (3) when does monitoring happen? (timescale), and (4) what does monitoring look like in an online world? (era). Finally, we recommend several lines of attack that could break the field's stalemate, heal the fracture, and deliver clinically meaningful advances. The time is now for fresh looks at parental monitoring.