In this chapter we focus on associations between intrusive parenting, the parent–adolescent relationship, and adolescents’ information management strategies. Theoretically, parenting that threatens adolescents’ autonomy leads to suboptimal adolescent adjustment. We discuss when overprotective parenting, psychological control, behavioral control, and helicopter parenting may be intrusive and how they are associated with the parent–adolescent relationship and adolescent information management. We also consider parental intrusiveness and adolescents’ information management in two specific contexts, namely in relation to adolescents’ sexuality and media use. We suggest that an intrusive parenting environment is not the optimal way to promote healthy adolescent information management.

This chapter challenges the traditional unidirectional view of parental monitoring by presenting a novel theoretical dynamic process model of parent–adolescent communication in which parents and adolescents causally influence each other. A review of empirical studies highlights that adolescents are active agents who strategically manage information from their parents. However, few studies have subjected the frequently hypothesized bidirectional processes to more rigorous within-family tests. Six studies with yearly intervals suggest that parent–adolescent communication about adolescent activities is bidirectionally related to adolescent outcomes. A handful of daily diary studies suggest that adolescents disclose more on days when there is more parental monitoring and when the quality of the relationship is better. What remains to be empirically determined is how real-time and everyday family functioning may explain the development of adolescent functioning. The chapter concludes with a discussion of four potential open questions for future research on transactional monitoring processes.