The Parent-Adolescent Relationship Context as a Moderator of Associations Between Secrecy and Disclosure to Parents...

Stattin and Kerr's (2000) seminal work illustrated the importance of adolescent disclosure, rather than parents' monitoring behaviors, in predicting adolescent adjustment. Subsequent work differentiated secrecy from disclosure, yet most of the existing research has examined these constructs in early or mid-adolescence. This study examines two indices of the parent-child relationship-autonomy support and conflict frequency-as moderators of associations between secrecy/disclosure and internalizing and externalizing domains of adjustment in late adolescence.

Participants included 242 youth (50% White, 18% Black, 17% Hispanic) who participated during mid-adolescence (M_age = 15.4 years) and late adolescence (M_age = 18.7). At both time points, adolescents provided self-reports of their disclosure, secrecy, parents' autonomy support, frequency of conflict with parents, antisocial behavior problems, and depressive symptoms.

Lower levels of disclosure and higher levels of secrecy uniquely predicted concurrent levels of antisocial behavior and depressive symptoms, and the effect of secrecy on antisocial behavior in late adolescence was exacerbated by high levels of parent-adolescent conflict. In contrast, secrecy, but not disclosure, uniquely predicted antisocial behavior longitudinally, and the association between secrecy and antisocial behavior was strongest among adolescents with highly autonomy supportive parents.

Findings suggest that routine disclosure to parents protects against antisocial behavior and depressive symptoms concurrently, but not over time. Keeping secrets from parents is associated with increased risk of antisocial behavior problems, although the context of the parent-child relationship should be considered.