ABSTRACT
Disclosure and secrecy with mothers and best friends about personal, bad behavior, and multifaceted (e.g., staying out late) activities were examined using daily diaries among 102 ethnically diverse, urban middle adolescents (M = 15.18 years, SD = .89). Adolescents disclosed more and kept fewer secrets from best friends than from mothers and more frequently disclosed and kept secrets about their personal than their bad behavior and multifaceted activities. Better daily relationship quality was associated with more disclosure about personal and multifaceted activities and less secrecy about bad behaviors for both mothers and best friends. Overall, when mothers solicited information, adolescents disclosed more but also kept more secrets from them, whereas best friends' solicitation was mostly associated with more disclosure.
Subject(s)
Adolescent Behavior/psychology , Confidentiality/psychology , Friends/psychology , Interpersonal Relations , Mother-Child Relations/psychology , Self Disclosure , Adolescent , Female , Humans , Male , Mothers/psychology , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
Adolescents' obligation to disclose and their actual disclosure about their activities to parents, justifications for nondisclosure, and strategies for information management were examined in different domains in 460 middle adolescents (M(age) = 16.6 years) from working and middle-class families in Japan. Adolescents felt most obligated to disclose prudential issues, but disclosed most about personal issues. Adolescents primarily justified nondisclosure with claims to personal choice and for prudential issues, concerns with parental disapproval. They rarely lied and mostly told parents if asked or avoided the issue. Findings revealed consistencies with prior work on disclosure with European and U.S. adolescents, as well as patterns specific to the Japanese cultural setting.
Subject(s)
Adolescent Behavior/ethnology , Parent-Child Relations/ethnology , Truth Disclosure , Adolescent , Female , Humans , Japan/ethnology , MaleABSTRACT
Developmental trajectories and individual differences in 70 American middle-income 2½- to 4-year olds' moral judgments were examined 3 times across 1 year using latent growth modeling. At Wave 1, children distinguished hypothetical moral from conventional transgressions on all criteria, but only older preschoolers did so when rating deserved punishment. Children's understanding of moral transgressions as wrong independent of authority grew over time. Greater surgency and effortful control were both associated with a better understanding of moral generalizability. Children higher in effortful control also grew more slowly in understanding that moral rules are not alterable and that moral transgressions are wrong independent of rules. Girls demonstrated sharper increases across time than boys in understanding the nonalterability of moral rules.
