Developmental Changes in Secrecy During Middle Adolescence: Links with Alcohol Use and Perceived Controlling Parenting

Abstract

Developmental changes in secrecy during middle adolescence: Links with alcohol use and perceived controlling parenting.

How Do Adolescents Manage Information in the Relationship with Their Parents? A Latent Class Analysis of Disclosure, Keeping Secrets, and Lying

“…During this period, fundamental changes occur in the way adolescents manage the information they give their parents about their daily lives (Lionetti et al, 2019 ). Specifically, adolescents are likely to disclose less information (Laird et al, 2013 ) and keep more secrets from their parents (Baudat et al, 2020 ). According to the communication privacy management theory (Petronio, 2002 , 2010 ), such information retention would facilitate the development of adolescents’ autonomy and privacy within their families, as it allows them to regulate and choose the information they share with their parents, and to delimit boundaries around information (Finkenauer et al, 2009 ).…”

“…For example, perceived parental involvement has been negatively related to keeping secrets (e.g., Keijsers et al, 2010 ). In addition, perceived parental autonomy support was negatively correlated with lies across multiple topics (Bureau & Mageau, 2014 ), whereas perceived controlling parenting was positively associated with keeping secrets (Baudat et al, 2020 ). Similarly, adolescents from authoritative families (i.e., characterized by responsiveness, autonomy support and structure) are less likely to keep secrets (Almas et al, 2011 ) or to lie (Darling et al 2006 ).…”

“…Previous research suggests that adolescents’ information management may be an important aspect to consider in the prevention of alcohol use. Specifically, negative associations have been found between disclosure to mothers and fathers and frequency of alcohol use (Jiménez-Iglesias et al, 2013 ), whereas positive associations have been found between keeping secrets and hazardous drinking (Baudat et al, 2020 ) as well as alcohol-related mental or physical health problems (Hartman et al, 2015 ). It should be noted that these cross-sectional associations could potentially reflect the fact that adolescents’ information management not only contributes to and reinforces certain behavioral patterns, but is also shaped by these behavioral patterns (Marshall et al, 2005 ).…”

Interplay between Parental Knowledge and Adolescent Inebriation, and Their Links to Parent–Child Relationships over Time

“…It should, however, be noted that the effects of adolescent inebriation to parental knowledge were somewhat unstable and evident only during early adolescence (between the age of 13 and 14) and late adolescence (between the age of 15 and 17), and that the effects were generally smaller than the effects of parental knowledge to adolescent inebriation. Although it would be rather unexpected that parents would have less knowledge as a result of adolescent inebriation, we speculate that the secrecy that generally co-develops with adolescent drinking habits [50] plays an important role in this association. As parental knowledge is generally a product of adolescent disclosure [21], any secretiveness and concealment of information from parents would likely have an impact on what parents know of their adolescents' whereabouts.…”

Josefina Bañales Receives Emerging Scholar Best Article Award, 2021

“…As we celebrate this award, it also is important to recognize the other truly outstanding articles deemed the best in each of the journal's other issues. Several of those articles focused on dimensions of parenting and family life (Rodríguez-Meirinhos et al, 2020;Thomas et al, 2020;Baudat et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2020). Some focused on peers (Laninga-Wijnen et al, 2020;Lessard et al, 2020;Busching & Krahé, 2020).…”