Poster #149 - Parental Psychological Control and Adolescents’ Domain-Specific Secrecy and Disclosure

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

Integrative Statement

Parental psychological control (PC) is a collection of manipulative and intrusive parenting behaviors used to control adolescents’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (Barber, 1996). Adolescents’ disclosure to and secrecy from parents about the behaviors in which they engage have important implications for adolescents’ engagement in problem behaviors (Stattin & Kerr, 2000). Interestingly, research has yielded inconsistent findings regarding the association between PC and adolescent secrecy and disclosure (Smetana et al., 2006; Soenens et al., 2006). One reason for this inconsistency is that this association may be behavior-specific and depend on what the adolescent is disclosing or keeping secret from parents. Because PC involves control over the personal domain, adolescents may be more likely to withhold information from PC parents in order to assert their autonomy (Soenens et al., 2006). On the other hand, adolescents may feel coerced to disclose personal or multifaceted behaviors, to PC parents without parents overtly asking (Smetana et al., 2006). Another reason for inconsistent findings regarding the link between PC and disclosure/secrecy may be related to the way in which PC is assessed. PC consists of multiple components (i.e., love withdrawal, invalidating feelings, personal attack) which are differentially associated with problem outcomes (Romm et al., 2018) and may also be differentially associated with adolescent behavior-specific information management strategies. The current study examined the associations between three distinct components of PC and adolescents’ secrecy and disclosure about domain-specific behaviors.

Participants were 161 adolescents (Mage=14.42, SD=1.73; 80.7% Caucasian; 59.6% women) living in a University city in a Mid-Atlantic state. Participants completed questionnaires about PC, as well as secrecy and disclosure about alcohol behaviors, risky cyber behaviors, problematic eating behaviors, personal behaviors, school behaviors, and multifaceted behaviors. Internal reliabilities for all measures ranged from α=.57 to α=.91.

Structural equation models assessed associations between PC components and adolescents’ behavior-specific secrecy and disclosure while controlling for adolescent age and gender. Models provided an adequate fit to the data (CMIN/DF=1.33-2.55, CFI=.97-.99, RMSEA=.05-.08). Results indicated that invalidating feelings was associated with greater secrecy about alcohol behaviors, risky cyber behaviors, problematic eating behaviors, school behaviors, and multifaceted behaviors, whereas personal attack was associated with greater secrecy about risky cyber behaviors and school behaviors only. Additionally, personal attack was associated with lower levels of secrecy about personal behaviors, whereas love withdrawal was associated with less secrecy about over-eating behaviors, school behaviors, and multifaceted behaviors (Table 1). With regards to disclosure, personal attack was associated with less disclosure about overeating behaviors and school behaviors only (Table 1).

Findings suggest that links between PC and adolescent disclosure and secrecy may vary as a function of both sub-type of PC and the specific behavior adolescents are disclosing or keeping secret. Specifically, adolescents appear to be less likely to withhold information from parents about personal and multifaceted behaviors when their parents engage in PC behaviors involving shaming the adolescent or withholding love from the adolescent. However, adolescents are more likely to withhold information when their parents engage in PC behaviors that involve controlling the adolescent’s thoughts and behaviors.

Authors

• Katelyn Romm, West Virginia University
  Presenting Author

• Aaron Metzger, West Virginia University
  Non-Presenting Author