Navigating Stress and Support in Space: Examining the Relationship between Parenting and Black Adolescence Agency Using EMA

Background and purpose: Black youth are regularly exposed to racism and structural inequality across multiple ecological settings, disrupting healthy developmental trajectories and undermining emotional well-being. Parenting practices can protect youth by limiting exposure to stressors, yet the effectiveness of these parenting strategies may vary based on youth agency. Using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and partnering with Black adolescents, the SPIN study explored the effects of parenting practices on daily exposure to stressors (violence and racism) and access to supports (social support and collective efficacy) in activity spaces and the role of choice in their exposures.

Method: To address these aims 75 Black adolescents (ages 13–19) were recruited from a highly segregated urban area to participate in an EMA study. Parenting practices (positive parenting, involvement, and monitoring) were assessed at baseline. Youth completed brief surveys three times daily for a month reporting on their perceived choice, racism, violence, social support, and collective efficacy in activity spaces. Youth choice was group-mean centered to assess momentary perceptions of choice relative to their average. Multilevel models tested the main and interaction effects of parenting and youth choice on daily exposure to stressors and supports.

Results: The results indicate that there is a direct relationship between parental monitoring and youth exposure to violence and between youth choice to be in a space and exposure to activity spaces that they perceive as racist, supportive, and having collective efficacy. For violence, a significant interaction between parental monitoring and choice (B(SE)= -.06(.02), p < .05) indicated that monitoring amplified the protective effect of youth agency, with the lowest violence exposure reported when monitoring and youths' choice to be there are high. In contrast, for racism, positive monitoring was only protective when youth had a choice about where they spent their time (B(SE) = -0.07(.02), p < .05). When youth reported little choice to be in the location, parenting had little effect on their exposure to racism. Furthermore, youth who reported that they chose to be in the location reported greater social support (B (SE)= 1.04(.19), p < .001) and collective efficacy (B(SE)= .93(.20), p < .001). In both domains, positive monitoring strengthened the positive associations, as reflected in significant interaction effects (B(SE)= .08(.02), p<.001) and (B(SE)= 07(.01), p< .001) respectively.

Conclusion and implication: Our study findings suggest that when Black youth have a choice about where they spend their time, they choose to spend time in activity spaces that they perceive to be supportive, and less racist, with positive parenting increasing the effect of choice. Importantly, parenting had little effect on exposure to racism when youth reported that they did not have a choice. Parental monitoring did have a positive effect on exposure to violence. Our study supports the importance of positive monitoring in protecting Black adolescents from exposure to stress in activity spaces, especially when youth can choose where they spend their time.