The Role of Parental Attitudes and Monitoring in the Risk Exposure of Young Children1

The parental monitoring literature debates the role of parental activity, as opposed to parental knowledge in childhood risk taking. We examined parents’ attitudes and behaviors regarding roadside supervision of children aged 4 to 6 years using self‐report and observational measures. Although parents perceived sons as less careful than daughters, they reported no sex differences in the age children would be allowed out unsupervised. There were no self‐report differences in supervision according to socioeconomic status. However, roadside observations showed that boys and children from a lower socioeconomic area received less supervision than girls or those from a higher socioeconomic area. Such findings contribute to our understanding of the sex and socioeconomic differences in accident involvement and the role of parental monitoring.