Parental disclosure from the perspective of late adolescents

Although parental relations are considered influential in adolescents' transition to adulthood, we know little about lessons that parents provide through self-disclosure. This study explored the content and extent of parents' disclosure, from the perspective of their children in late adolescence. College students were asked to indicate how much each parent had shared about various matters in their lives, to characterize the quality of each parent's disclosure to them and their disclosure to each parent, and to recall each parent's most meaningful, awkward and first disclosures. Based on previous research regarding adolescents' disclosure to parents, gender differences in disclosure, and reciprocity of disclosure, it was predicted that greater disclosure would be exchanged with mothers than with fathers. Results confirmed initial predictions, indicated some of the functions that parental disclosure may serve, and suggested a model by which intra-family disclosure might evolve.