Opening the Door of Self-Disclosure

Abstract

Loneliness is prevalent among iGeneration adolescents who fail to develop close friendships. The present review proposes a proactive approach, advocating that adolescents should be supported in their development of close friendships, as part of social-emotional learning (SEL). As research has found self-disclosure to be an important skill for developing close friendships, adolescents should be guided in this skill. Such guidance is the domain of school counselors and psychologists who could use the organized thinking framework on self-disclosure and the six counseling methods detailed and demonstrated here to support adolescents in this task.