The 263 participants completed the 1991 Youth Lifestyle Survey, which contained nine pages of items concerning attitudes about their families, friends, school, religious beliefs, and community as well as participation in various conforming and nonconforming behavior, including delinquency. The direct parental control measure included four factors: parental monitoring of the youth's behavior and the sanctions of expressing disappointment, withdrawing positive appraisals, and restricting participation in extracurricular activities in school. Results revealed that even with a range of theoretically relevant variables controlled, direct control was inversely related to involvement in juvenile delinquency. However, this relationship was stronger and more consistent for males than for females. Tables, notes, appended table and list of criminal behaviors, and 93 references (Author abstract modified)