Disclosure and Secrecy in Adolescent–Parent Relationships

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206 Smetana, Metzger, Gettman, and Campione-Barr authority and adolescents’ obligations to disclose their behavior in different domains are reported in Table 1. Our hypothesis that ratings of the legitimacy of parental authority and obligations to disclose to parents would be highly associated was confirmed. Total ratings were strongly correlated for adolescents, r(275) 5 .59, and parents, r(249) 5 .62. However, although statistically significant, associations between parents’ and adolescents’ ratings of the legitimacy of parental authority, r(249) 5 .20, and obligations to disclose to parents, r(249) 5 .29, were only moderate. To test hypotheses about domain, age, and generation differences, separate 2 (grade) 2 (sex) 2 (generation: parent vs. child) 4 (domain) repeated measures analyses of variance (ANOVAs) with generation and domain as repeated measures were performed on ratings for the two judgments. As hypothesized, parents were seen as having significantly less legitimate authority, F(1, 236) 5 6.17, and adolescents were perceived as being significantly less obligated to disclose to parents as they got older, F(1, 237) 5 7.94. Also consistent with expectations, parents viewed parents as having significantly more legitimate authority, F(1, 237) 5 239.14, and adolescents as having significantly more of an obligation to disclose to parents, F(1, 237) 5 220.30, than did adolescents. Furthermore, significant main effects for domain in ratings of legitimacy, F(3, 708) 5 523.69, Table 1 Means and Standard Deviations for Ratings of Legitimacy of Parental Authority and Obligations to Disclose and obligations to disclose, F(3, 711) 5 327.23, revealed that prudential issues were seen as more legitimately subject to parental authority and more obligatory to disclose than all other issues (Bonferroni t-tests, all pso.01). In turn, socially regulated (moral and conventional) items were seen as more legitimately subject to parental authority than multifaceted and personal issues. In contrast, adolescents were seen as more obligated to tell parents about their behavior vis-à-vis multifaceted issues than moral, conventional, and personal issues. As hypothesized, personal issues were seen as less obligatory to disclose and less legitimately subject to parental authority than all other issues. Findings regarding the legitimacy of parental authority were qualified by significant Generation Grade, F(1, 236) 5 4.93, p 5 .03, Generation Domain, F(3, 708) 5 42.76, and Domain Grade Generation interactions, F(3, 708) 5 4.50. For obligations to disclose to parents, there was a significant Generation Domain interaction, F(3, 711) 5 20.49, and the three-way interaction approached significance, F(3, 711) 5 2.56, p 5 .054. Post hoc analyses revealed that there were no significant age differences in 9th and 12th graders’ ratings of the legitimacy of parental authority for any of the domains, but parents of 9th graders viewed parental authority as more legitimate for multifaceted, socially regulated (moral and conventional), and personal issues Legitimacy of parental authority Obligation to disclose Adolescents Parents Adolescents Parents 9th 12th M 9th 12th M 9th 12th M 9th 12th M Prudential M 4.17 3.96 4.05 4.73 4.52 4.64 3.63 3.33 3.51 4.74 4.55 4.66 SD 1.12 0.98 1.08 0.88 0.92 0.90 1.37 1.28 1.30 0.75 0.70 0.73 Social M 2.91 2.89 2.90 4.29 4.05 4.19 2.89 2.66 2.79 4.07 3.80 3.96 SD 0.99 0.94 0.92 0.72 0.86 0.75 1.09 1.02 0.96 0.73 0.75 0.75 Multifac M 2.76 2.74 2.75 4.24 3.75 4.05 3.25 3.18 3.22 4.29 3.90 4.12 SD 0.91 0.85 0.87 0.72 0.79 0.78 1.02 0.89 0.94 0.70 0.71 0.73 Personal M 2.11 2.18 2.15 3.16 2.80 3.02 2.55 2.49 2.52 3.35 3.07 3.23 SD 0.88 0.79 0.83 0.80 0.79 0.81 0.88 0.86 0.87 0.78 0.68 0.75 Total M 3.02 2.98 3.00 4.12 3.79 3.99 3.09 2.91 3.01 4.11 3.84 4.00 SD 0.82 0.71 0.77 0.59 0.65 0.64 0.91 0.85 0.88 0.62 0.59 0.62 Note. Multifac 5 Multifaceted; Social 5 Moral and Conventional. Items were rated on 5-point scales where higher scores 5 more legitimate parental authority and greater obligation to disclose to parents.
(but only marginally, for prudential issues) than did parents of 12th graders. As expected, parents viewed their adolescents as significantly less obligated to disclose their activities in each domain as they got older. However, similar age-related decreases in adolescents’ ratings of their obligation to voluntarily disclose their behavior to parents approached significance for moral and conventional (po.07) and prudential issues (po.055), although adolescents consistently rated personal issues as less obligatory than all other issues. Overview and Descriptive Findings for Disclosure and Secrecy Means and standard deviations for adolescents’ ratings of disclosure and secrecy regarding personal, peer, and schoolwork issues for mothers and fathers and their interrelationships are presented in Table 2. As can be seen, mean levels of disclosure and secrecy were both moderate. Because we selected the peer issues from a larger set of multifaceted issues used to assess legitimate parental authority, the items, by definition, entailed overlaps between the domains. Thus, high correlations between personal and peer issues would be expected, and this is what we found. However, there were strong associations among ratings of disclosure regarding all three types of issues. In contrast, while adolescents’ ratings of secrecy regarding personal and peer issues were highly correlated, as would be expected, the remaining associations were moderate, supporting their distinction. For both disclosure and secrecy, adolescents’ ratings of mothers and fathers were very strongly associated, but when considering both mothers and fathers, adolescents’ ratings of disclosure and secrecy showed the expected moderate but negative associations. Adolescent Disclosure and Secrecy Although adolescents’ ratings of mothers and fathers were strongly associated, the results in Table 2 also suggest that there were mean level differences in adolescents’ ratings of their parents. Thus, in the next set of analyses, 2 (adolescents’ sex) 2 (sex of parent) 2 (grade) 3 (topic) repeated measures ANOVAs with sex of parent and topic as repeated measures were run to examine the hypothesized grade, sex of parent, sex of adolescent, and topic differences in secrecy and disclosure. (There was a slightly smaller n in these analyses than in the pre- 2 vious analyses because not all adolescents rated a father. Parent – adolescent differences in ratings of Table Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations Among Adolescents’ Ratings of Disclosure and Secrecy Disclose ! Mother Disclose ! Father Secrecy ! Mother Secrecy ! Father School Peer Pers School Peer Pers School Peer Pers School Peer M SD Disclose ! M Pers 2.83 0.94 0.61 0.68 0.77 0.46 0.50 0.43 0.23 0.40 0.33 0.20 0.28 Disclose ! M School 3.82 0.94 1.00 0.54 0.47 0.77 0.38 0.22 0.34 0.27 0.14 0.30 0.20 Disclosure in Adolescence 207 Disclose ! M Peer 2.98 1.18 1.00 0.52 0.42 0.79 0.39 0.23 0.51 0.28 0.15 0.38 Disclosure ! F Pers 2.49 0.87 1.00 0.62 0.68 0.34 0.21 0.31 0.39 0.25 0.37 Disclosure ! F School 3.59 1.08 1.00 0.53 0.10 0.25 0.14 0.16 0.30 0.20 Disclosure ! F Peer 2.68 1.03 1.00 0.29 0.14 0.37 0.37 0.17 0.44 Secrecy ! M Pers 2.60 0.93 1.00 0.38 0.65 0.82 0.34 0.54 Secrecy ! M School 2.16 0.98 1.00 0.38 0.22 0.80 0.29 Secrecy ! M Peer 2.74 1.15 1.00 0.51 0.33 0.81 Secrecy ! F Pers 2.71 0.99 1.00 0.22 0.51 Secrecy ! F School 2.25 1.05 1.00 0.33 Secrecy ! F Peer 2.87 1.23 1.00 Note. M5Mother; F 5 Father; Pers 5 Personal; Underlining 5 ns. Items were rated on 5-point scales where higher scores 5 more disclosure and greater secrecy. po.05, all other ps o.01.
Page 1 and 2: Child Development, January/February
Page 3 and 4: 1988a, 2000; Smetana & Asquith, 199
Page 5: about legitimate parental authority
Page 9 and 10: Table 4 Means and Standard Deviatio
Page 11 and 12: 5 .16, po.05). In contrast, greater
Page 13 and 14: associated with less trust in the p
Page 15 and 16: suggests the need for further speci
Page 17: Appendix A Table A1 Stimulus Items

Disclosure and Secrecy in Adolescent–Parent Relationships

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