Disclosure to Parents About Everyday Activities Among American Adolescents From Mexican, Chinese, and European Backgrounds

Abstract

Disclosure to parents and reasons for not disclosing different activities were examined in 489 Chinese, Mexican, and European American adolescents (M = 16.37 years, SD = 0.77). With generational status controlled, Chinese American adolescents disclosed less to mothers about personal and multifaceted activities than European Americans and less about personal feelings than other youth, primarily because these acts were considered personal, not harmful, or because parents would not listen or understand. Disclosure regarding prudential behavior was lower among Mexican American than among European American adolescents, primarily due to concerns with parental disapproval. Multigroup path analyses indicated that greater closeness to parents is associated with more disclosure for all youth and activities; associations between family obligation and disclosure varied by domain and ethnicity.

Parents’ Experiences of Monitoring Their Adolescents’ Compliance With Diversion Orders

“…While parents reflected on their adolescents' secretiveness, it was observed that parents felt frustrated when adolescents were secretive about their activities, as the parents had to increase their efforts to gain information from other sources. Consistent with earlier research (Kerr et al, 2010:39;Yau et al, 2009Yau et al, :1492, this study established that parental knowledge of adolescents' activities depended more on adolescent self-disclosure than parental solicitation. The parents participating in this study reported that adolescents would at times share information about their activities out of their own volition; however, most reported that their adolescents would not share information voluntarily.…”

“…Consistent with previous research (Tolou-Shams, Hadley, Conrad & Brown, 2012:449-456;Yau et al, 2009Yau et al, :1493, the parent-adolescent relationships in this study were affected by the adolescents' clash with the law, and most parents reported not being sure as to whether they could trust their adolescents, hence the imposition of restrictions on their adolescents' freedom. Parents reported that their relationships with their spouses or ex-spouses had been negatively affected by their adolescents' arrest and diversion.…”

“…Other studies have found that the use of indirect monitoring methods, which refers to parents soliciting information about their adolescents' activities from sources other than the adolescents, was employed by parents when they struggled to gather information directly from their adolescents (Bakken & Brown, 2010:383;Yau et al, 2009Yau et al, :1493 …”

“…This theory clarifies the domains in which parents monitor adolescents, particularly diverted adolescents' daily activities, and explains how monitoring activities within the different domains affect parenting experiences during adolescence. This theory has been extensively cited by researchers in studies of parental monitoring of adolescents and its impact on the development of adolescent autonomy (Keijsers, Branje, Van der Valk & Meeus, 2010;Kerr et al, 2010;Sorkhabi, 2010;Yau, Tasopoulos-Chan & Smetana, 2009). Parental monitoring of children's daily activities poses various challenges as they transition from infancy through childhood and into adolescence (Wray-Lake, Crouter & McHale, 2010:637).…”

La integración de los inmigrantes a través de la comunicación

“…El motivo para no comunicar sus actividades es la percepción de que se trata de actividades privadas, que no causan daño a nadie y que sus padres no les escucharían o entenderían (Yau, Tasopoulos-Chan y Smetana, 2009).…”