Parental Support and Adolescent Disclosure in the Context of Peer Stress

Abstract

The present study examined whether global parenting behaviors and context-specific parental support behaviors predicted adolescents’ global and observed disclosure about their peer relationships. Adolescents completed questionnaires assessing parental warmth, solicitation, psychological control, and global disclosure, and participated in a 5-minute ongoing peer-problem discussion with their parent (N = 85). Observational coding assessed parent-adolescent discussions for parental guidance and protection and adolescents’ situational and emotional disclosure. Regression analyses revealed anticipated associations between parental warmth and solicitation and adolescents’ global disclosure, although similar associations were not found with parental psychological control. Global parenting variables (i.e., parental warmth, solicitation, and psychological control) were not associated with observed disclosure during ongoing peer-problem discussions. However, as hypothesized, observed parental protection emerged as a unique predictor of adolescents’ overall and emotional disclosure during peer-problem discussions, whereas observed parental guidance was not significantly associated with any of the disclosure variables. Findings suggest that adolescents’ willingness to disclose information about their distressing peer experiences may depend less on the overall relational climate and more on parents’ ability to provide emotional comfort and validation within specific disclosure interactions.