This longitudinal study examined bidirectional paths between perceived parent-adolescent relationship quality and depressive symptoms, as well as the moderating role of sex, age, and personality type. 1313 Dutch adolescents (51% girls) from two cohorts (923 12-year olds and 390 16-year olds at Wave 1) reported on their personality, depressive symptoms, and perceived relationship quality to parents in four waves. Consistent with a relationship erosion perspective, depressive symptoms negatively predicted perceived relationship quality with parents. Relationship quality to mothers predicted depressive symptoms for boys and girls, but relationship quality to fathers predicted depressive symptoms only for boys. Personality type only moderated initial associations between relationship quality with mothers and depressive symptoms, which were stronger for Overcontrollers and Undercontrollers than for Resilients. Results thus reveal a pattern of mutual influence between perceived relationship quality and depressive symptoms that is moderated by the interplay among parent and adolescent sex and adolescent personality type.

Recent research has identified adolescent disclosure to parents as a powerful predictor of adolescent adjustment. We propose, however, that the common operationalization of adolescent disclosure incorporates the two separate constructs of disclosure and secrecy, and predicted that the disclosure-adjustment link can largely be explained by the unique contribution of secrecy from parents. A four-wave survey study among 309 adolescents tested these predictions. Factor analyses confirmed that disclosure and secrecy should be distinguished as two separate constructs. Moreover, in cross-lagged path analyses, only secrecy was a longitudinal predictor of adolescent internalizing (i.e., depression) and externalizing (i.e., delinquency) problems, disclosure was not. Secrecy consistently contributed to the longitudinal prediction of delinquency from early to middle adolescence, whereas it contributed to the prediction of depression only in early adolescence. Findings thus attest the importance of distinguishing between disclosure and secrecy and suggest that the disclosure-adjustment link may actually reflect a secrecy-maladjustment link.

This 4-wave study among 309 Dutch adolescents and their parents examined changes in adolescent disclosure, parental solicitation, and parental control and their links with the development of delinquent activities. Annually, adolescents and both parents reported on adolescent disclosure, parental solicitation, and parental control, and adolescents reported on delinquent activities and parental support. Latent growth curve analyses revealed a linear decline in parental control between ages 13 and 16. Adolescent disclosure decreased gradually in adolescent reports and showed an L-shaped pattern in father reports and a V-shaped pattern in mother reports. A stronger increase in delinquent activities was related to a stronger decrease in disclosure in mother and adolescent reports and to lower levels of disclosure in father reports. The linkages between levels of disclosure and delinquent activities were stronger in families with high parental support than in families with lower support. Furthermore, in lower parental support families, a stronger decrease in paternal control was related to a stronger increase in delinquent activities. In high parental support families, however, a stronger decrease in adolescent-reported parental control was related to a less strong increase in delinquent activities.

The present study was aimed at examining one relatively neglected part of the identity formation process: the short-term dynamics of identity formation. The short-term dynamics were assessed by examining (a) the day-to-day course of 2 key dimensions of identity formation (i.e., commitment and reconsideration) and (b) the impact of fluctuations in commitment and reconsideration on subsequent levels of these 2 dimensions. Longitudinal data on 580 early adolescents (54.8% boys, 45.2% girls) were used to test these assertions. The authors found evidence for a commitment-reconsideration dynamic that operated on a day-to-day basis. Furthermore, the findings confirmed E. H. Erikson's (1950) assertion that identity reflects a sense of sameness and continuity as a more stable identity (reflected by little day-to-day fluctuations) was predictive of higher levels of commitment and lower levels of reconsideration. Taken together, the present study underscores the importance of the short-term dynamics of identity formation.

We examined the daily dynamics among self-concept clarity and identity processes, and their effects on distress, among a sample of 580 Dutch adolescents. Participants completed measures of identity, self-concept clarity, anxiety and depression at annual intervals; and daily single-item measures of self-concept clarity, identity commitments and reconsideration across three 5-day weeks. We examined (a) cross-lagged associations of selfconcept clarity to identity commitment and reconsideration and (b) associations of daily fluctuations in self and identity processes to later anxiety and depression. Results indicated that self-concept clarity and identity commitments influence one another reciprocally across days, and that day-today fluctuations in identity predicted later anxiety and depression. Results are discussed in terms of self and identity processes and their effects on distress.