Santos, Benedict T. Prof. Carlo G.

de Pano

BA Speech Communication Speech 135

Journal Article Review

Disclosure and Secrecy in Adolescent-Parent Relationships

J.G. Smetana, A. Metzger, D. Getman and N. Campione-Barr

In this research, the beliefs about parents' legitimate authority and adolescents'
obligations to disclose to parents and actual disclosure and secrecy in different dimensions
(prudential, moral and conventional, personal, and multifaceted) were examined in 276
ethnically diverse (majority were White Americans), lower middle-class 9th and 12th graders.
The students’ average age was at fifteen years. 249 parents were also surveyed, although
differences in family structure and decision not to participate in the study account for the uneven
number in relation to the students. The researchers advanced the following hypotheses: (1) the
judgments of legitimate parental authority would be highly associated with obligations to
disclose to parents and that both adolescents and parents would view adolescents as more
obligated to disclose moral, conventional, and prudential issues (because these are domains
adolescents think concern other people especially their parents) rather than multifaceted and
personal issues; (2) that adolescents' disclosure of personal issues to parents would decrease with
age; and (3) it was also projected that trust (both parents' perceptions of trust in their adolescents
and adolescents' perceptions of trust in their parents), and, for personal issues, more parental
acceptance and psychological control would predict more disclosure and less secrecy.

There were two sets of questionnaires. One for the parents and another for the students or
adolescents. The first hypothesis was tested by a 5-point Likert scale assessing the perception of
adolescents about the legitimacy of parental authority over the domains in question and their
perceived level of obligation to disclose. Legitimacy was measured by rating the extent to which
it is okay for parents to set rules and expectations as regards disclosure. Parents were also asked
to evaluate their authority over the given domains and their perceived level of obligation to
disclose on the part of the adolescents. The second hypothesis was tested based on the results of
the same survey questions used to test the first hypothesis. As for the third hypothesis, trust was
measured by asking the participants (both the students and parents) to answer the trust subscale
of the Parent-Peer Attachment Inventory which assesses the adolescents’ trust in parents. The
questionnaire was reworded for the parents measuring their perception of their children’s trust in
them. As for the psychological control and parental acceptance variables, they were measured by
asking the parents to rate how much they resemble the characteristics indicative of the variables
on a 3-point scale.

As for the first hypothesis, adolescents’ and parents' beliefs about adolescents' obligations
to disclose to parents were closely associated with the adolescents’ beliefs about parents'
legitimate authority in that both parents and adolescents viewed adolescents as more obligated to
tell parents about their prudential behavior and less obligated to disclose personal issues than any
other type of issue. The first hypothesis was confirmed by the findings. As for the second
hypothesis, age-related declines in judgments of parents' legitimate authority over the different
domains were found only in parents' but not adolescents' judgments. This could be because this
study focused on a more limited age as compared to other studies done in the past. As for the
third hypothesis, adolescents' trust in parents was more strongly associated with disclosure than
parents' trust in their child. As expected, secrecy over personal and peer issues was associated
with less trust in the parent-adolescent relationship. Also, differences were particularly evident
for parents' ratings of acceptance and psychological control. Greater parental acceptance was
associated with more disclosure regarding personal issues and schoolwork and less secrecy
regarding personal issues. Lastly, greater parental psychological control was associated with
more disclosure regarding personal issues and less secrecy regarding peer issue. In addition, the
researchers found that adolescents disclosed more to mothers than to fathers, particularly
regarding personal issues. Also, they found that the sex of the child also mediates the disclosure.
Girls disclose more to their mothers than fathers, but there was no significant difference found in
the disclosure of boys to both parents.

In the Philippine context, there are variables specific to the culture that would come into
play and should be taken into account in studying the dynamics of parent-adolescent relationship
in terms of the parents’ and adolescents’ perception of parental authority, and adolescents’
obligation to disclose. One of the concepts probably endemic to our culture is “hiya.” Hiya is
not just shame in Filipino, moreover, it’s about one’s sense of propriety according to Pe-Pua and
Protacio-Marcelino. (2000, p. 55). The many affixes that we attach to the Filipino word hiya and
the different contexts in which we can use the word go to show how deeply ingrained this
concept is in our culture. Hiya can influence the socially regulated domains of an adolescent’s
life considering how central family is to the lives of Filipinos, and consequently how an
adolescent would disclose about issues under said domains.

The trust variable on the part of the adolescent should be further looked into qualitatively
especially in the Filipino context where the concept of tiwala may bear some weight in the
dynamics of parent-adolescent relationship. The trust variable may be analyzed in another way as
a factor that may further inhibit disclosure in an attempt to keep the trust of the parents in the
adolescent intact. Perceived acceptance on the part of the adolescents should also be assessed as
in the current research acceptance was only rated by the parents. The research overall may be
replicated considering the Filipino culture as it only measures the perceived legitimacy of
parental authority and the adolescent’s obligation to disclose on the part of both the parents and
adolescents which can be assessed accurately by altering the contents of the different socio-
cognitive domains over which parents assert authority to fit the Filipino culture.

Journal article:

Campione-Barr, N., Getman, D., Metzger, N. A., and Smetana, J.G. (2006). Disclosure and
Secrecy in Adolescent-Parent Relationships. Society for Research and Child
Development. Retrieved on October 15, 2015 from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3696699

Work/s cited:

Pe-Pua, R., and Protacio-Marcelino E. (2000) Sikolohiyang Pilipino (Filipino Psychology): A

Legacy of Virgilio G. Enriquez. Asian Journal of Social Psychology. Retrieved May
10, 2015 from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-839X.00054/epdf