Abstract

Given potential risk factors in the lives of adolescents, parents are usually motivated to monitor and protect their adolescents. There is a need to better understand what combinations of parental dimensions and practice best influence an adolescent's propensity to disclose or conceal personal information with their parents. This paper examines how parenting dimensions (warmth, psychological control, and harsh punishment) and the parenting practice of solicitation influence an adolescent's propensity to disclose or conceal information. Adolescents in 106 families (53 females; predominantly Caucasian) reported on their mothers' and fathers' parenting dimensions as well as their parents' effort to solicit information. Factor analysis was conducted on the measure typically used for disclosure to test whether the items measured only disclosure or if two distinct adolescent outcomes of disclosure and concealment were more appropriate. Results supported our contention that disclosure and concealment might be considered separately. Other results indicated a positive association between adolescents' disclosure and the positive parenting dimension warmth and parental solicitation. There was a negative association between disclosure and harsh punishment in the father-son dyad. Psychological control was positively associated with concealment for both adolescent boys and girls. With a few exceptions, same gendered dyads (father-son, mother-daughter) showed the most associations between parenting dimensions and practices and disclosure or concealment.

Degree

College and Department

Family, Home, and Social Sciences; Family Life; Marriage, Family, and Human Development

Rights

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