Poster #159 - To Conceal or Reveal? Dispositional Self-Concealment Predicts Adolescent Self-Disclosure to Mothers

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Studies have consistently revealed adolescent disclosure as the strongest predictor of parental knowledge about adolescents’ companions, whereabouts, and behaviors (Kerr & Stattin, 2000). In turn, parental knowledge is linked to positive adolescent outcomes (Vieno, Nation, Pastore, & Santinello, 2009). It therefore becomes important to understand what promotes adolescent disclosure to parents. Although intrapersonal predictors such as dispositional self-concealment have been identified as important predictors of disclosure in adult dyads (Larson, Chastain, Hoyt, & Ayzenberg, 2015), little is known about how personality dimensions affect youth disclosure to parents. The current study tested two main hypotheses: 1) adolescent self-concealment is a significant predictor of adolescent self-disclosure, and 2) adolescent self-concealment accounts for variation in self-disclosure to mothers, over and above the contribution of previously examined predictors of youth disclosure (i.e., maternal warmth and delinquency; see Blodgett Salafia, Gondoli & Grundy, 2009; Tilton-Weaver, 2014; Kerr, Stattin, & Burk, 2010). These hypotheses were tested using adolescent and mother reports respectively.

Using a sample of 82 mother-adolescent dyads, two 2-step hierarchical regressions supported our hypotheses. Results utilizing all adolescent reports indicated that at step 1, maternal warmth (ß = .204, p < .05) and adolescent delinquency (ß = -.397, p <.05) were both significantly associated with adolescent self-disclosure in the expected directions (R2 = .529; ΔF(2,79) = 44.28, p < .05). As hypothesized, at step 2, self-concealment (ß = -.122, p < .05) explained additional variance in adolescent self-disclosure (ΔR2 =.051; ΔF(1,78) = 9.44, p < .05) above and beyond what had been accounted for by the variables entered at step 1 (see Table 1).

Results for the analysis using combined mother and adolescent reports (i.e., mother-reported maternal warmth and adolescent self-disclosure, and adolescent-reported delinquency and self-concealment) indicated that on step 1, maternal warmth (ß = .125, p < .05) and adolescent delinquency (ß = -.341, p <.05) were both significantly associated with adolescent self-disclosure (R2 = .195; ΔF(2,79) = 9.58, p < .05) in the expected directions. Also as hypothesized, at step 2, adolescent self-concealment (ß = -.126, p < .05) explained additional variance in adolescent self-disclosure (ΔR2 =.074; ΔF(1,78) = 7.88, p < .05) above and beyond what had previously been accounted for by the variables entered at step 1 (see Table 2).

To our knowledge, the predictive power of self-concealment on self-disclosure within the parent-adolescent relationship has yet to be examined. By excluding personality trait-like variables, past research on adolescent disclosure may have over-attributed variation in disclosure to measures of environmental and behavioral factors. Furthermore, our findings align well with those from the broader self-concealment and disclosure literature focused on adults (Larson & Chastain, 1990; Larson et al., 2015); this suggests that key intrapersonal patterns found in adult relationships (i.e., self-concealment and disclosure) are developing in adolescents’ relationships with their parents. Therefore, in order to ascertain a more complete and accurate assessment of factors influencing the parent-adolescent relationship and adolescent development more generally, it is important for development scholars to account for intrapersonal characteristics such as self-concealment in future research.

Authors

• Kathryn M. Lance, University of Hartford
  Presenting Author

• Dawn M Gondoli, University of Notre Dame
  Non-Presenting Author