title: Day-to-day inconsistency in parent knowledge: links with youth health and parents' stress.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Considerable evidence documents the linkages between higher levels of parental knowledge about youth activities and positive youth outcomes. This study investigated how day-to-day inconsistency in parental knowledge of youth activities was linked to youth behavioral, psychological, and physical health and parents' stress.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were employees in the Information Technology Division of a Fortune 500 company and their children (N = 129, mean age of youth = 13.39 years, 55% female). Data were collected from parents and youth via separate workplace and in-home surveys as well as telephone diary surveys on eight consecutive evenings. We assessed day-to-day inconsistency in parental knowledge across these eight calls.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Parents differed in their knowledge from day to day almost as much as their average knowledge scores differed from those of other parents. Controlling for mean levels of knowledge, youth whose parents exhibited more knowledge inconsistency reported more physical health symptoms (e.g., colds and flu). Knowledge inconsistency was also associated with more risky behavior for girls but greater psychological well-being for older adolescents. Parents who reported more stressors also had higher knowledge inconsistency.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Assessing only average levels of parental knowledge does not fully capture how this parenting dimension is associated with youth health. Consistent knowledge may promote youth physical health and less risky behavior for girls. Yet knowledge inconsistency also may reflect normative increases in autonomy as it was positively associated with psychological well-being for older adolescents. Given the linkages between parental stress and knowledge inconsistency, parent interventions should include stress management components.
authors.affiliation: School of Social Work, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Electronic address: mlippold@unc.edu.
authors.forename: Melissa A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Lippold
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Susan M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: McHale
authors.affiliation: Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness and Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Kelly D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.affiliation: Ellen Ernst Kossek: Krannert School of Management, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.
authors.forename: Ellen Ernst
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Kossek
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D012309:Risk-Taking; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States
keywords: Daily diary; Parental knowledge; Physical health; Psychological well-being; Risky behavior