Trajectories of emotional disclosure with parents during the college transition among Asian first-year students.

Abstract

The college transition is a time of great emotional lability, and sharing emotional experiences with parents can be beneficial for first-year students. Guided by the social sharing of emotions framework and the cultural theory on self-construal, this study investigated the developmental course of freshmen's emotional disclosure with parents during the first semester and the mediating role of independence-orientation in two Asian contexts-Beijing (China) and Singapore. Using experience sampling method (online diary), 205 Chinese freshmen (M age = 19.43) and 291 Singapore freshmen (M age = 19.44) reported on four facets of emotional disclosure with parents (frequency, intimacy, negativity, and positivity) across four timepoints and their independence-interdependence orientation (Time 1). Latent growth curve modeling comparing the two Asian samples revealed that frequency increased for Chinese students and decreased for Singapore students. Intimacy indicated upward trajectories for both Asian samples, whereas negativity and positivity showed downward trajectories but were less pronounced for Chinese students. Mediated latent growth curve modeling revealed that the cultures predicted independence-orientation, which in turn negatively predicted increase in frequency for the Singapore sample and positively predicted decrease for the Chinese sample. Independenceorientation negatively predicted increase in intimacy, positively predicted decline in negativity, and negatively predicted decline in positivity. In sum, we found complex and differentiated trajectories for the four facets of emotional disclosure in two Asian samples and the mediating role of independence-orientation in explaining cultural differences in the trajectories, which have implications for understanding emotional disclosure to parents during the developmental phase of the college transition in Asian contexts. Public Significance StatementChinese and Singapore freshmen's emotional disclosure with parents is a sophisticated and multifaceted developmental process. Although Beijing (China) and Singapore are traditionally interdependenceoriented Asian societies, first-year students across these two Asian cultures have varying experiences in how they manage emotions with parents during the developmentally significant phase of the college transition. Independence-orientation can account for cross-cultural differences in the trajectories of emotional disclosure with parents among first-year Asian college students.