Adolescent Disclosure of Information About Peers: The Mediating Role of Perceptions of Parents’ Right to Know

Abstract

Following the important insight that what parents know about their adolescent offspring depends primarily on what the child tells them, this study examines how attitudes about what parents have a right to know mediate the associations between several factors (quality of parent-child relationships, time spent with family and peers, levels of antisocial and prosocial behaviors, and gender and age) and adolescents' disclosures about peer relations. In two studies of early and middle adolescents (Ns = 231, 249; M ages = 14.5, 13.0; 62.3, 51.8 % female; 53.7, 67.5 % European American), a new measure of right-to-know attitudes is derived and then applied to four facets of adolescents' experiences with peers: details of activities with peers, issues in specific relationships, and positive and negative peer characteristics. The findings indicate that adolescents are more inclined to disclose certain aspects of their peer relations than others, but these inclinations are related to several factors-especially the quality of mother-child relationships and involvement in antisocial behavior-and mediated by adolescents' attitudes regarding what parents have a right to know about peers. The results are related to autonomy development and parental oversight of adolescent peer interactions.

Longitudinal associations among routine disclosure, the parent–child relationship, and adolescents’ prosocial and delinquent behaviors

“…Many recent studies have informed how child disclosure functions within the context of family by examining various predictors (e.g., parent–child conflict; Chan, Brown, & Von Bank, 2015), moderators (e.g., parental trust; Laird & Marrero, 2010), and outcomes of child disclosure (e.g., delinquency; Keijsers, Frijns, Branje, & Meeus, 2009). While research has consistently assessed a link between child disclosure and child outcomes, few studies have explored the parent–child mechanisms through which these processes might be connected (Laird & Zeringue, in press).…”

How Mental Health Interviews Conducted Alone, in the Presence of an Adult, a Child or Both Affects Adolescents’ Reporting of Psychological Symptoms and Risky Behaviors

“…Adolescents may disclose, partially disclose or even conceal information that they consider either subject to punishment or disapproval or not obliged to share (Smetana et al 2009). Expanding on prior knowledge of adolescents’ information management with parents and siblings (Campione-Barr et al 2015; Chan et al 2015; Laird et al 2013; Tilton-Weaver 2014) and findings regarding adolescent and parental discrepancies on reports of adolescent risk behaviors and mental health (Jensen et al 1999; Rescorla et al 2013; Salbach-Andrae et al 2009; Seiffge-Krenke and Kollmar 1998), this study finds that, when interviewed by a stranger, having an adult, child or both present impacts on adolescents’ disclosure of prudential information. Disclosure depended on the type of third party presence and type of information solicited.…”

“…Disclosure by adolescents is mediated by adolescents’ attitudes regarding what parents have a right to know (Chan et al 2015). U.S. adolescents have been found to feel more obligated to disclose to parents prudential information (defined as information that pertains to one’s comfort, safety and health such as risky behaviors) than personal (defined as that pertaining to privacy, preferences, and control over one’s body) or conventional information (that pertaining to social norms) (Smetana et al 2006).…”

Što roditelji imaju pravo znati o dječjim vršnjačkim odnosima – mišljenje adolescenata i njihovih majki

“…Na temelju dosadašnjih istraživanja može se zaključiti kako adolescenti koji svojevoljno otkrivaju informacije roditeljima vjeruju da njihovi roditelji imaju pravo znati takve informacije. Većina istraživanja je, slijedeći pristup u okviru teorije socijalnih domena, upotrebljavala klasifikaciju pitanja oko kojih se vode rasprave između adolescenata i roditelja u šira područja društvenog života adolescenata koja ne diferenciraju dobro njihove odnose s vršnjacima (Bakken i Brown, 2010;Chan, Brown i Von Bank, 2015). Brown i suradnici (2007) smatraju kako razumijevanje odluka adolescenata o samootkrivanju informacija o vršnjacima zahtijeva temeljitiju procjenu područja vršnjačkih odnosa.…”