Black Adolescents' Disclosure and Advice-seeking: Making Choices Between Parents and Familial Mentors

• In Event: Examining Youth Mentorship Across Diverse Contexts

Abstract

Black youths’ social relationships are a naturally occurring resource that supports their healthy development during adolescence (Fergus & Zimmerman, 2005; Travis & Leech, 2014). Specifically, Black youth benefit from supportive intergenerational relationships with parents and non-parental adult relatives who they seek support and guidance from when needed (i.e., familial mentors; Cross et al., 2018; Hurd et al., 2012; Hurd & Sellers, 2013). One way that youth may benefit from these supportive intergenerational familial relationships is by having opportunities to disclose information and receive advice in the context of these disclosures from trusted adults (Kogan et al., 2011; Wittrup et al., 2019; Yu et al., 2019). Disclosure refers to the voluntary sharing of information related to one’s personal thoughts and feelings (self-disclosure; Derlega et al., 2008; Jourard; 1971), and daily activities and whereabouts (routine disclosure; Tilton-Weaver et al., 2014). Additionally, advice is conceptualized as the recommendation of a specific course of action (Goldsmith, 1994; Heritage & Sefi, 1992). By disclosing information to supportive adults, youth may position themselves to receive advice that can help them navigate new challenges arising during adolescence (Almas, 2009).While prior literature establishes the importance of youth sharing information and receiving helpful guidance from parents and other supportive adults (Poulin et al., 2012; Wittrup et al., 2019; Yu et al., 2019), less attention has been given to youths’ decision-making in the support process. Additionally, much of the research on adolescent development has taken a somewhat isolated approach to understanding intergenerational relationships (Varga & Zaff, 2018). With few exceptions to note (Pilkauskas & Dunifon, 2016; Teitelman et al., 2009), adolescents’ relationships with parents and supportive non-parental adult relatives largely have been studied separately and without consideration of each other. Thus, less is also known of how dyadic youth-adult familial relationships are interrelated and concurrently function to support youths’ needs.
The current study utilized qualitative data (72 interviews) from 24 youth (ages 11 – 15), their primary caregiver, and one non-parental adult relative (50% familial mentors) to examine how Black youth leveraged relationships with parents and close non-parental adult relatives in concert to promote their own socioemotional well-being. Specifically, this study considered how Black adolescents made decisions to disclose information and seek advice from their parents and close non-parental adults in their family network. Results of this study suggest that youths’ decision to confide may be topic dependent rather than based on a general disposition among youth for whom they share most of their concerns. Importantly, findings indicated that youth appeared to go to their primary caregivers either exclusively or in conjunction with non-parental adult relatives across most domains of disclosure and advice-seeking. Findings also indicated family issues as one topic that youth would almost exclusively discuss with their non-parental adult relatives. Overall, findings suggest the centrality of primary caregivers in the lives of Black adolescents and the important role non-parental adult relatives fill in helping youth navigate family conflict.

Authors

• Janelle Billingsley, University of Maryland - Baltimore County
  Presenting Author

• Ariana Rivens, University of Virginia - Charlottesville

• Noelle Hurd, University of Virginia - Charlottesville