Adolescence is a period in which youths experience rapid physical, psychological, emotional and social changes and a desire to be autonomous and engage in adult-like behaviors. The desire for independence among adolescents can create a challenge for parents to effectively monitor their children's behavior. Although delinquency peaks adolescence, parental monitoring habits have been found to decrease juvenile offending. However, adolescents who experience child welfare system contact are at an increased risk for engaging in juvenile delinquency, particularly when the child welfare system contact occurred during adolescence. Using a secondary dataset including 532 male first-time juvenile offenders from Orange County, California, the present study assessed whether parental or primary caregivers' effort, knowledge, and monitoring remain protective factors against juvenile delinquency regardless of child welfare system contact, and whether, among dual system youth with contact with both systems, the timing of child welfare system contact moderates the relation between primary caregiver effort, knowledge, and monitoring and juvenile delinquency. Results indicated that knowledge and monitoring were protective against adolescent offending regardless of whether a youth had prior involvement in the child welfare system, but that effort was positively associated with offending. Results also suggested that the timing of child welfare system contact was not significantly related to adolescent offending. Implications for parenting and juvenile justice system practice are discussed.
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