Information management strategies in early adolescence: Developmental change in use and transactional associations with psychological adjustment.

Abstract

Adolescents use various strategies to manage their parents' access to information. This study tested developmental change in strategy use, longitudinal associations between disclosing and concealing strategies, and longitudinal associations linking disclosing and concealing strategies with antisocial behavior and depressive symptoms. Self-report data (n = 218; 49% female; 49% European American, 47% African American) following Grades 5 (M age = 11 years, 11 months), 6, and 7 show that the use of disclosing strategies (e.g., telling all, telling if asked) following misbehavior declined while use of concealing strategies (e.g., omitting details, keeping secrets, lying) increased over time. Longitudinal links between strategies suggest a transactional process wherein infrequent disclosing is a gateway to concealment but concealment also predicts subsequent rank-order reductions in disclosure. Infrequent disclosing was associated with more subsequent antisocial behavior and depressive symptoms, whereas more antisocial behavior was associated with more subsequent concealment. Although absolute declines in disclosure and increases in concealment are normative, individual differences show that adolescents reporting low levels of disclosure, rather than high levels of concealment, appear to experience the most adjustment problems.

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

“…The negative association between antisocial activity and disclosure about peers was also consistent with other research indicating that adolescents with relatively high rates of delinquent behavior tended to disclose less to parents about their lives, in general (Ahmad et al, in press;Laird et al 2013;Keijsers et al 2010). Because adolescents' antisocial activity is likely to occur in the company of peers (Dishion and Tipsord 2011), those who reported high levels of antisocial behavior probably had more peer associates and peer activities that would garner parents' disapproval.…”

“…The age differences matched trends in several short-term longitudinal studies of disclosure, more generally measured, across various portions of the age span that we examined (Cheung et al 2013;Keijsers et al 2009;Laird et al 2013). Like other investigators, we regard this as evidence of growing autonomy from parents.…”

“…In fact, other studies suggest that the more adolescents engage in drug use, delinquent activities, and deviant peer affiliations, the less parents know about their activities (Laird et al 2003;Soenens et al 2006) and the less adolescents reveal to parents (Darling et al 2006;Keijsers et al 2009). Some evidence further suggests that, over time, these are reciprocal relationships (Laird et al 2013). Scholars have not examined a potential parallel process, in which the more adolescents engage in prosocial behavior, the more they may reveal to parents about their peer relationships and activities.…”

“…We also did not probe for the disclosure or nondisclosure strategies that adolescents employed, differentiating between full or partial disclosure, or between avoiding conversations about peers and keeping secrets or lying about peer events and relationships. Other studies suggest that behavioral characteristics or outcomes vary as a function of strategies that adolescent use (Cumsille et al 2010;Laird et al 2013). …”

Trends in Parent-adolescent Communication in the Czech Republic between 2002 and 2014: Results of the HBSC Study.

“…In adolescence a desire to be independent leads to lower willingness to share information with parents and communication becomes generally more difficult for both sides (9)(10)(11). In early adolescence an increase in closure and secrecy is typical, as is a decrease in parental solicitation (12).…”