Introduction
Researchers and laypeople alike agree that disclosure is good for people. Ample empirical studies provide support for this assumption, showing that people who disclose their deepest thoughts and feelings to intimate confidants are happier, have higher self-esteem, and suffer from fewer physical health problems than people who keep these thoughts to themselves (e.g., Pennebaker
1989). Disclosure pertains to private and intimate information about the self that people share with others, including feelings, dispositions, events in the past, and plans for the future (Derlega and Grzelak
1979). It occurs when the target is supportive, accepting, and can be trusted (Chelune
1979) and leads to greater liking for the disclosing person (see Collins and Miller
1994 for a meta-analysis). These effects of disclosure have been well established for disclosure among adults (e.g., Green et al.
2006), siblings (Howe et al.
1995), friends (Levesque et al.
2002) and adolescent disclosure to parents (Finkenauer et al.
2004; Buhrmester and Prager
1995; Stattin and Kerr
2000). Thus, it is well established in the literature that within these relationship contexts, disclosure has a beneficial effect on the relationship and personal well-being.
In sharp contrast to the considerable body of literature that describes adolescent disclosure to their parents and disclosure processes among adults, we know very little about the effects of parent-to-child disclosure on children’s psychosocial well-being (e.g., depressive symptoms). Given that disclosure is an essential part of family interaction (e.g., Finkenauer et al.
2004; Norrell
1984), investigating parents’ disclosure to their children seems essential in enhancing our understanding of the effects of disclosure in families. Therefore, the present study aims to explore the longitudinal effect of maternal disclosure on adolescents’ well-being (i.e., depressive feelings). Furthermore, it investigates whether the relationship between maternal disclosure and levels of depressive symptoms differs for boys and for girls. Because the literature reveals that mothers disclose more frequently to their children (e.g., Dolgin
1996; Dolgin and Berndt
1997; Finkenauer et al.
2004) than fathers, we will limit our investigation to the examination of disclosure in mother–adolescent relationships.
Maternal Disclosure to Children
Maternal disclosure may have either positive or negative effects on adolescents’ well-being (i.e., depressive feelings), depending on the kind of information being disclosed. Research on maternal disclosure of stressful information, such as financial concerns (e.g., Lehman and Koerner
2002), maternal HIV infection (for reviews see Hawk
2007; Wiener et al.
2007), or mothers’ negative feelings about their divorce and ex-husband (e.g., Afifi et al.
2007; Koerner et al.
2004) consistently showed that children who are exposed to stressful disclosure from their mothers experience more internalizing (e.g., anxiety, depressive symptoms) and externalizing problems (e.g., aggression). By disclosing stressful information to their children, parents may appeal to them for support and help which for some adolescents may feel overwhelming as they do not know how to provide this support to their parents and may not be able to cope with these responsibilities. This reversal of roles, also named parentification, is a relationship dynamic in which the parent turns to the child for nurturance, assistance and emotional support (see Kerig
2005 for a more detailed explanation).
In contrast, research on maternal disclosure of general information suggests that mothers’ disclosure may have positive effects on children’s well-being. Late adolescents report that through parental disclosure they learn more about their parents and reach a new relationship plateau (Miller and Stubblefield
1993). A study on spiritual disclosure between older adolescents and their mothers found that greater maternal disclosure, as reported by adolescents, was associated with greater relationship satisfaction, less verbal aggression, and more constructive conflict resolution in the mother–adolescent relationship (Brelsford and Mahoney
2008). Moreover, spiritual disclosure was related to general disclosure, indicating that mothers and adolescent children who openly discussed religious and spiritual topics also disclosed more general information to each other.
Maternal disclosure of general information may facilitate the development of more equal and symmetrical parent–child relations, which is an important developmental task in adolescence (Grotevant and Cooper
1986; Youniss and Smollar
1985). Furthermore, by disclosing information to their children, mothers may stimulate their children to disclose more information to them which, in turn, should benefit children’s well-being (Finkenauer et al.
2002). Finally, by disclosing information to their children, mothers may increase feelings of closeness and trust necessary to maintain close relations with their children (Collins and Miller
1994; Miller and Stubblefield
1993). Our study examined maternal disclosure of general information, rather than stressful information. Based on theories and findings about changes in family relations during adolescence we expect that maternal disclosure to children should predict lower levels of depressive symptoms.
Maternal Disclosure and Adolescent Sex
Due to gender specific communication patterns and socialization practices, the beneficial effect of maternal disclosure may be moderated by adolescent sex. Mother–daughter relationships are closer and more intimate than mother–son relationships (e.g., Surrey
1991). Girls more often feel the need to be in close contact with their mothers and to share thoughts, feelings, and experiences with her (Geuzaine et al.
2000). Daughters, as compared to sons, are more used to verbal interactions and disclosure with their mothers (Papini et al.
1990). From an early age, mothers demonstrate higher amounts of verbal interactions and more socio-emotional speech with daughters than with sons (Leaper et al.
1998). Girls’ close relationships are typically centered on communication whereas boys’ close relationships are typically centered on activities (Furman and Buhrmester
1992). Consequently, maternal disclosure may be more appropriate and prevalent in relationships between mothers and daughters than mothers and sons. Indeed, research by Dolgin (
1996) shows that mothers disclose more intimate information to their daughters than their sons. This, however, may make daughters more susceptible to psychosocial problems than sons (e.g., Koerner et al.
2000) because daughters are closer to their mothers than sons, and therefore might identify with their mothers more and internalize their mothers’ stress more (e.g., Afifi et al.
2007). This may lead to more anxiety and worries in daughters due to their mothers’ disclosures (Koerner et al.
2004).
Adolescent boys, on the other hand, may not feel comfortable having intimate conversations with their mothers as it does not match with the traditional masculine sex role. Low gender typicality during adolescence is related to reduced self-esteem and internalizing problems (Yunger et al.
2004; Smith and Leaper
2005). Moreover, adolescent boys’ individuation process from parents is more turbulent and ambivalent compared to girls, with boys having lower levels of emotional autonomy (Beyers and Goossens
1999) and higher levels of parental idealization and engulfment anxiety, the fear of over control and emotional intrusion by parents (Levpušček
2006). Relatedness or closeness at the cost of autonomy has been shown to be related to later internalizing problems (e.g., Hodges et al.
1999). Thus, with boys having more problems to individuate from parents, high levels of maternal disclosure might even further complicate their individuation process and increase their level of depressive symptoms.
The second aim of the present study is to explore gender differences in the association between maternal disclosure and adolescent depressive symptoms. Due to the mixed picture in the literature concerning gender differences in responding to maternal disclosure, we do not have a priori hypotheses concerning the direction of the associations. Based on gender specific communication patterns and socialization practices we expect that the association of maternal disclosure and adolescent depressive symptoms is moderated by the gender of the target adolescent.
The Present Research
The aim of the present study is to test whether maternal disclosure of general information is related to depressive feelings among adolescent boys and girls. We used data from a longitudinal study among mothers and their early-adolescent child. Analyses focus on cross-sectional and longitudinal (4-years interval) associations.
Our study adds to the literature on the relationship of parent-to-child disclosure to adolescent well-being (i.e., depressive symptoms) by focusing on boys as well as girls, and by using data both concurrently and over an extended period of time, allowing examination of the long-term associations with adolescent depressive symptoms. Furthermore, and importantly, we considered two factors that may potentially confound the link between disclosure and depressive symptoms. The literature shows that disclosure and relationship quality are mutually transformative (Derlega et al.
1993): Disclosure is higher in relationships in which partners are satisfied with and care about each other. Consequently, we control in analyses for the general quality of the parent–child relationship to prevent that associations between maternal disclosure and adolescent depressive symptoms can simply be explained by low relationship quality. Further, the literature shows links between parental dysphoria and young children’s depressive symptoms (Cummings et al.
2005; Shelton and Harold
2008). To assess whether disclosure accounts for unique variance in adolescents’ depressive feelings, we therefore controlled for maternal depressive symptoms.
Discussion
The aim of the present study was to extend previous work on disclosure in families by investigating the associations between maternal disclosure and depressive feelings among adolescent boys and girls. Consistent with previous work, we found that children disclosed more to their mothers than vice versa (Finkenauer et al.
2004), girls disclosed more to their mothers than boys (Dolgin
1996), and mothers disclosed equally to their daughters and sons (Miller and Stubblefield
1993). Further, the quality of the parent–child relationship was positively related to maternal as well as children’s disclosure. Thus, the more both mothers and children disclose to each other, the more positive they perceive their relationship (Finkenauer et al.
2004). As compared to their children, mothers reported higher levels of their own and their children’s disclosure (see also Dolgin and Berndt
1997; Van der Vorst et al.
2005). Accordingly, we found only marginal to moderate associations between maternal and children’s reports on disclosure. The low consistency in child and mother report on disclosure resembles the findings from studies on behavioral and emotional problems where associations between child and parent report are generally weak and decrease even more during adolescence (Achenbach et al.
1987; Kramer et al.
2004). The fact that the similarity between disclosure ratings of different persons reported by the same informant was considerably higher is probably due to the fact that the same person has it’s own unique perspective on the quality of the relationship which is expressed in more equal ratings within the same person (Engels et al.
2001). We have chosen to focus on the child’s perceptions of maternal disclosure because adolescent perceptions of the disclosure have been shown to be a stronger predictor for adolescents’ well-being (Afifi et al.
2007). Our aim was to focus on gender differences but future research should investigate more closely the magnitude, reasons for and consequences of this discrepancy in maternal and children reports.
The central questions of this study were how maternal disclosure affects adolescents’ levels of depressive feelings and whether that association would be different for boys and girls. Controlling for the quality of the parent–child relationship and levels of maternal depressive feelings, both congruently and longitudinally, the analyses revealed an interaction effect for the child’s gender, moderating the association of maternal disclosure on adolescents’ depressive feelings. Higher levels of maternal disclosure were accompanied by lower levels of depressive feelings in girls and by higher levels of depressive feelings in boys. Why are adolescent boys differently affected by mothers’ disclosure than girls?
The higher intimacy level in mother–daughter dyads (e.g., Surrey
1991), and girls’ need to be close to their mothers (Geuzaine et al.
2000), might make girls feel more comfortable with their mother’s disclosure. Additionally, mothers’ socialization efforts differ according to their child’s gender. Also we did not find any differences in the level of maternal disclosure towards boys and girls, mothers may verbally interact more with their daughters from an early age on and may use more socio-emotional speech with their daughters than with their sons (Leaper et al.
1998). Hence, maternal disclosure in mother–daughter dyads might function as a vehicle for relationship growth and may help to increase intimacy and trust (Miller and Stubblefield
1993). For girls, maternal disclosure may intensify and deepen their relationship with their mothers (Altman and Taylor
1973), which, in turn, may lead to a decrease in girls’ depressive symptoms (Baumeister and Leary
1995).
For adolescent boys, in contrast, our findings yield that higher levels of maternal disclosure are related to higher levels of depressive feelings over time. As outlined above, socialization practices and communication patterns are gender specific. In general, boys’ close relationships center less on communication (Furman and Buhrmester
1992). Within the family, boys are less close and intimate with their mothers (Geuzaine et al.
2000; Surrey
1991) and boys disclose less to their mothers than girls (Finkenauer et al.
2004; Papini et al.
1990). Additionally, adolescent boys may not feel comfortable having intimate conversations with their mothers because it does not fit traditional masculine gender roles (Lombardo and Berzonsky
1980). Research on individual differences in masculine gender role socialization has identified rigid adherence to masculine gender roles as a risk factor for the development of depressive symptoms in men (Good and Wood
1995; Shepard
2002; Syzdek and Addis
2010). According to the gender intensification hypothesis (Galambos et al.
1990), the pressure to conform to gender specific roles increases dramatically during adolescence. For adolescent boys especially, it becomes much more important what peers think, value, and judge (Overbeek et al.
in press; Steinberg and Silverberg
1986; Steinberg and Monahan
2007). This pressure to conform to gender roles may lead to rigid adherence to masculine gender roles, which posses a risk for boys to accelerate in depressive symptoms, especially during this developmental period.
Taken together, gender differences in socialization, communication, and social networks suggest that boys might not be well equipped to handle too much maternal disclosure. Adding to this, males in general seem to use less coping behavior when faced with stressful experiences than females (Wilson et al.
2005; for a review see Tamres et al.
2002). Adolescent girls have higher levels of social support seeking and problem-solving, boys in contrast have higher levels of avoidant coping (Eschenbeck et al.
2007), in particular in social stressor situations. Accordingly, the combination of feeling more overwhelmed by their mother’s disclosure and being less well equipped to cope with these experiences might explain why higher levels of maternal disclosure are associated with higher levels of depressive feelings in boys but not in girls. These explanations are speculative and future research should aim to pit different explanations against each other.
It should be noted that this study presents an important extension to the literature in that it focuses on gender differences in the prediction of depressive feelings. It is well documented in the literature that women are twice as likely to suffer from depressive symptoms, and that this gender gap starts to emerge during early adolescence. However, previous work on gender differences in rates and development of depression has focused almost exclusively on trying to explain the higher prevalence of depression in females (see Addis
2008 for similar argument). It has not simultaneously increased our understanding of etiological and risk factors for the development of depressive symptoms in boys. This study’s results highlight the importance of focusing on factors contributing to the exacerbation of depressive symptoms in boys. The more so because recent evidence suggests that the gender gap is narrowing (Stoolmiller et al.
2005).
Limitations and Future Questions
This study contributes to the literature on disclosure by investigating gender differences in the relationship between maternal disclosure and children’s depressive feelings. At the same time, there are several limitations in the present study. First, the type of information mothers disclose and the way in which they disclose the information to their children might explain the mixed findings in the literature on the association between maternal disclosure and children’s depressive feelings, with some reporting positive effects (Brelsford and Mahoney
2008) and some reporting negative effects (e.g., Afifi et al.
2007; Lehman and Koerner
2002). Maternal disclosure of stressful information might more easily burden the children who are not able to deal with the awkward information (Miller and Stubblefield
1993). In future research, it would be important to investigate more closely the sort of information that mothers disclose.
Second, our study did not focus on the paternal disclosure of fathers. We did not include assessments of disclosure by fathers to children in the questionnaires. It thereby remains unclear whether paternal disclosure has effects that parallel those of maternal disclosure. Moreover, it would be interesting to investigate how sons feel towards their father when maternal disclosure is high. Geuzaine et al. (
2000), for instance, found that for boys emotional dependence towards one parent was associated with conflictual dependence towards the other one. Future research should include paternal disclosure in order to get a full picture of the role of parental disclosure in family relations and functioning, and adolescents’ well-being.
Third, as our study constitutes a sample of two-parent relatively well-functioning primarily Caucasian families, we can not generalize to all categories of families. Especially in divorced families, maternal disclosure may impact differently on adolescents’ depressive feelings. In a cross-sectional study by Koerner et al. (
2000) maternal disclosure towards daughters following the mother’s divorce revealed that maternal disclosure was associated with daughters’ psychological distress. Future research should investigate the longitudinal association between maternal disclosure and adolescents’ well-being in different family compositions as maternal disclosure in divorced families may involve violation of typical intergenerational intimacy boundaries, which may lead to higher levels of depressive symptoms also in girls.
Fourth, due to the low age range in our sample, we were unable to examine whether the effects of maternal disclosure vary across age groups. Specifically, it is possible that mothers disclose more information to their children as they become older (e.g., Armistead et al.
2001; Bauman et al.
2002). Also, mothers might disclose differently as children become older, and changes in magnitude and kind of disclosure might alter the association with depressive feelings. Moreover, previous research shows that maternal disclosure of general information has beneficial effects for older adolescents (Miller and Stubblefield
1993; Brelsford and Mahoney
2008). Gender differences in response to maternal disclosure might diminish over the years but may be more pronounced during middle adolescence. Future studies are needed to answer these questions.
Finally, although the longitudinal design of the study presents a major strength of the study, we lack knowledge on additional processes during this long time interval that may contribute to the development or desistence of depressive symptoms. The role of stress and negative life-events especially should be included in future research as it is known that these factors are associated with the onset of depressive feelings (e.g., Burton et al.
2004) and that coping with stress and negative life events differs between boys and girls (Tamres et al.
2002). Also social support and in particular peer support should be investigated because it impacts on the development and course of depressive symptoms either directly (e.g., Burton et al.
2004) or via a buffering effect (e.g., DuBois et al.
1992). Peer processes are of crucial importance during adolescence and because boys and girls differ in their construction of social networks peer processes are likely to impact differently on the association between maternal disclosure and depressive symptoms. Thus, future research should incorporate stress and the coping strategies and capacities with these negative life-events to investigate how maternal disclosure contributes to or interacts with those factors in the prediction of adolescents’ depressive symptoms.
In sum, this study revealed new insights into the association between maternal disclosure and children’s well-being (i.e., depressive feelings), and represents a first important step in understanding gender differences in this relationship. Our study illustrates that certain family dynamics have different effects on adolescent boys and girls (Hay et al.
2000) and hereby draws our attention to the importance of studying boys’ and girls’ world of experience separately (Vandeleur et al.
2007). Notably, our findings suggest that maternal disclosure during middle adolescence to sons may be more problematic than maternal disclosure to daughters.