UC Merced

Adolescent disclosure to parents is a positive feature of parent-adolescent relationships. Although self-reported disclosure to parents typically declines across adolescence, little is known about age and gender differences in real-time adolescent disclosures, nor about the impact that maternal emotions can have on such disclosures. The present study examined the frequency, intensity, and duration of adolescent emotional and informational disclosures to mothers in real-time. Specifically, I (1) explored gender differences in adolescent disclosure, (2) explored age differences in adolescent disclosure, and 3) examined associations between maternal emotion behaviors, adolescent disclosures, and mother- and adolescent-reported satisfaction with a conflict discussion. Adolescents (N = 49, Mage = 14.84 years) and mothers participated in a 10-minute conflict discussion. Adolescent disclosures and maternal emotions were coded moment-to-moment. Results showed that older adolescents engaged in longer durations and more intense instances of informational disclosures compared to younger adolescents. Male adolescents engaged in longer instances of informational disclosure compared to female adolescents. Results also showed that maternal validation was positively associated with the duration of adolescent informational disclosure as well as the duration of instances where both forms of disclosure were displayed. In contrast, maternal negative emotion was negatively correlated with frequency and duration of informational disclosure. Lastly, adolescent discussion satisfaction was positively correlated with both the frequency and total duration of informational disclosure. Implications for applying observational methodologies to the adolescent disclosure literature will be discussed.