During adolescence, individuals’ needs for autonomy and privacy become salient, leading them to question their parent’s legitimacy to obtain information about certain areas of their lives (Smetana,
2011). This coincides with an increase in time spent with peer groups in which adolescents experiment with risky behaviors (Barnes et al.,
2007), particularly alcohol use (Inchley et al.,
2020). Revealing this information to parents can be particularly sensitive (Metzger et al.,
2020). Thus, adolescents are likely to set boundaries around information about their daily activities, friendships, and whereabouts. These boundary shifts lead to profound transformations in parent-child communication patterns, as illustrated by adolescents’ tendency to hide more information about their daily lives over time (e.g., Keijsers & Poulin,
2013). Intentionally withholding information from parents is thus assumed to be a part of development, as it would help adolescents gain a sense of autonomy (Smetana,
2018) and assert their privacy within the family (Finkenauer et al.,
2008). Despite this assumption, researchers have rarely been able to empirically find positive correlates of adolescents’ concealment. Indeed, adolescents’ frequent withholding of information has been shown to be not only symptomatic of poorer parent-child relationships, which may undermine their motivation to reveal information (Wuyts et al.,
2018), but also to have consequences for adolescents’ alcohol use (McCann et al.,
2016). To disentangle this apparent paradox, it seems important to simultaneously consider the extent to which adolescents withhold information from their parents and the extent to which they reveal it (Talwar & Crossman,
2011). Person-centered approaches may be particularly useful in this regard to explore distinct patterns of information management and their differences with respect to parenting, motivation to disclose, and alcohol use. However, little research has been conducted with this analytical approach. Using latent class analysis, this study aims to explore the extent to which adolescents vary in their frequency of use of strategies, and to understand how these patterns differ in terms of perceived parenting, autonomous reasons for disclosure, and problematic alcohol use.
Disclosing, Keeping Secrets and Lying to Parents During Adolescence
Since the pioneering work of Stattin and Kerr (Stattin & Kerr,
2000; Stattin et al.,
2010), adolescents’ status as active agents in the relationship with their parents has been widely recognized. Indeed, adolescents actively manage what their parents know about their daily activities, friendships and whereabouts outside the family, strategically selecting the amount and the type of information they communicate (Tilton-Weaver & Marshall,
2008). In this process, adolescents are likely to use a variety of strategies to manage the content of information about their unsupervised time (e.g., Cumsille et al.,
2010).
Disclosure refers to the act of sharing information about their daily life to their parents, including their activities, whereabouts, and the peers with whom they share their time (Tilton-Weaver et al.,
2013).
Keeping secrets from their parents is a way for adolescents to hide information about certain areas of their lives, such as omitting certain details in conversations (Frijns & Finkenauer,
2009). Finally,
lying is also a concealment strategy that adolescents may use, but it differs from the previous one because it involves intentionally sharing false information to deceive their parents—an act of commission (Smetana,
2011).
Although the strategies of disclosure and concealment (i.e., keeping secrets and lying) are often seen as opposites on the same continuum, these acts of information management are distinct from each other both theoretically (Afifi et al.,
2007) and empirically (e.g., Jäggi et al.,
2016). Theoretically, keeping secrets and lying require a conscious control decision to hide information, whereas nondisclosure does not require such an effort (Frijns et al.,
2010). In this sense, keeping secrets and lying can be considered as intentional ways of managing privacy (Afifi et al.,
2007). Moreover, keeping secrets and disclosing information can occur simultaneously (Finkenauer et al.,
2008), such as when adolescents tell their parents that they went to a party where their friends drank alcohol, without mentioning that they also drank alcohol (Tasopoulos-Chan et al.,
2009). Previous empirical research provides evidence for this theoretical distinction, as studies using factor analysis have confirmed that disclosure and keeping secrets should be considered as two separate constructs (e.g., Jäggi et al.,
2016). Furthermore, according to communication researchers (Afifi et al.,
2007), keeping secrets should also be distinguished from lying, in that the secret keeper withholds certain information with the intention of making no particular impression on the interlocutor. By contrast, when lying, one seeks more explicitly to create a false impression. Overall, both theoretical and empirical evidence supports the importance of studying these three information management strategies as distinct constructs.
These strategies can take on important developmental functions as adolescents grow older. During this period, fundamental changes occur in the way adolescents manage the information they give their parents about their daily lives (Lionetti et al.,
2019). Specifically, adolescents are likely to disclose less information (Laird et al.,
2013) and keep more secrets from their parents (Baudat et al.,
2020). According to the communication privacy management theory (Petronio,
2002,
2010), such information retention would facilitate the development of adolescents’ autonomy and privacy within their families, as it allows them to regulate and choose the information they share with their parents, and to delimit boundaries around information (Finkenauer et al.,
2009). Yet at the same time, along with this need, adolescents also try to keep a sense of intimacy, which involves the need to feel connected and keep good relationships with their parents who remain an important source of support. This may be done through continued disclosure of information about certain aspects of their daily life (Fletcher & Blair,
2018). In summary, it is assumed that adolescents use both disclosure and concealment strategies with their parents to satisfy their needs for autonomy and for intimacy.
According to self-determination theory (SDT; Ryan & Deci,
2017), all human beings are born with three basic and universal psychological needs – autonomy, relatedness, and competence – that are essential for well-being and adjustment. Adolescents’ development would be enhanced if they feel autonomous (i.e., feeling a sense of being at the origin of one’s actions and choices), related (i.e., feeling socially connected to significant others), and competent (i.e., feeling a sense of efficacy and mastery). Parents can actively support the satisfaction of these needs through their parenting behaviors (Joussemet et al.,
2008). In particular, three components of parenting have been identified as need-supportive in the sense that they provide the essential conditions to satisfy adolescents’ basic psychological needs (Soenens et al.,
2019): (a) involvement, which refers to the emotional resources (e.g., warmth, affection, respect) offered by parents to their child (Grolnick,
2003); (b) autonomy support, which concerns the degree to which parents encourage their children to think and behave according to their interests, personal values and goals (rather than by forcing them to behave in a specific way [i.e., controlling parenting]; Soenens et al.,
2007); and (c) structure, which refers to clear and consistent expectations, limits and rules communicated to the child (Grolnick & Pomerantz,
2009).
Previous research has shown that need-supportive parenting promotes adolescent development and interpersonal functioning (Pinquart,
2017). With respect to adolescent information management process, many studies showed that adolescents who are more likely to disclose information to their parents about their daily life are those who perceive their mothers (e.g., Kearney & Bussey,
2015) or fathers (e.g., Soenens et al.,
2006) as warm and responsive. Adolescents whose parents are autonomy-supportive are also more likely to disclose information about a variety of topics, including mistakes at school (Roth et al.,
2009), activities and whereabouts outside the home (Mageau et al.,
2017), or friends (Wuyts et al.,
2018). Conversely, adolescents who perceive their parents as unresponsive (e.g., Tokić Milaković et al.,
2018) or controlling (e.g., Soenens et al.,
2006) are less likely to disclose information. Lastly, regarding the links between parental structure and adolescent disclosure, the results are sparser. On the one hand, some studies showed that adolescents whose mothers (e.g., Kearney & Bussey,
2015) or fathers (e.g., Soenens et al.,
2006) provide them rules and limits are more likely to disclose information to them. In contrast, other studies found no statistically significant associations between structure and disclosure (e.g., Hamza & Willoughby,
2011).
Previous studies have also examined associations between the dimensions of parenting style and adolescents’ use of concealment strategies, but to a relatively lesser extent than for disclosure. In general, empirical evidence showed that adolescents with need-supportive parents are less likely to keep secrets or lie. For example, perceived parental involvement has been negatively related to keeping secrets (e.g., Keijsers et al.,
2010). In addition, perceived parental autonomy support was negatively correlated with lies across multiple topics (Bureau & Mageau,
2014), whereas perceived controlling parenting was positively associated with keeping secrets (Baudat et al.,
2020). Similarly, adolescents from authoritative families (i.e., characterized by responsiveness, autonomy support and structure) are less likely to keep secrets (Almas et al.,
2011) or to lie (Darling et al.
2006). Finally, as presented above for disclosure, the associations between structure and concealment strategies are also less consistent. For example, some studies showed that adolescents whose parents set rules and limits (e.g., Jensen et al.,
2004) were more likely to lie, whereas others have found no statistically significant links between structure and lying (e.g., Lushin et al.,
2017).
Taken together, these findings suggest that the general parenting style adopted by parents is important in understanding how adolescents manage information. Specifically, adolescents who are most likely to disclose information have parents who are involved, autonomy-supportive, and, to some extent, structuring. Thus, parents also have a role to play in the information management process by creating a need-supporting climate in which adolescents are willing to share information about their daily lives. Adolescents are indeed likely to interpret cues in their family context that satisfy their needs (Tokić Milaković et al.,
2018) and in turn, may foster their motivation to disclose information (Wuyts et al.,
2018).
Previous studies mainly examined the extent to which adolescents disclose or conceal information. However, to date, the voluntary or involuntary nature of that disclosure has received little attention. Drawing on SDT (Ryan & Deci,
2017), one study (Wuyts et al.,
2018) differentiated willingness to disclose by examining underlying reasons, which vary along a continuum from controlled to more autonomous motivations. When adolescents disclose information to their parents because they feel pressured to do so, whether by an external or internal cause, they disclose because of
controlled reasons. The most pressured reasons involve “external regulation”, such as when an adolescent reveal information out of fear of punishment or disappointment of parents. Pressure can also come from within (“introjected regulation”), for example when adolescents disclose information because they would feel ashamed or guilty if they did not. Conversely, adolescents may also disclose information because they want to; that is, for
autonomous reasons. Specifically, in the case of “identified regulation”, adolescents disclose information to their parents because they personally understand that it is important to be honest in the relationship with them. Finally, in the case of “intrinsic motivation”, adolescents disclose information to their parents because they find it interesting to talk with them and enjoy doing so.
As adolescents spend more time with their peers, they may engage more frequently in risky behaviors (e.g., substance use, delinquency, unsafe sex; Barnes et al.,
2007). One of the most common behaviors among adolescents is alcohol use (Inchley et al.,
2020). For example, two thirds of Swiss 15-year-old students report having consumed alcohol at least once in their lifetime (70.3% of boys and 68.5% of girls) (Delgrande Jordan et al.,
2019). In addition, nearly one in two 15-year-old students report drinking alcohol in the 30 days prior to the survey (46.0% of boys and 41.0% of girls). These behaviors are generally explorative (Michaud,
2006) and may have a developmental function (Zimmermann et al.
2017). What remains a legitimate concern is the significant proportion of adolescents involved in excessive alcohol use (Delgrande Jordan et al.,
2019). Adolescent problem drinking patterns can have short- and long-term deleterious consequences (Boden & Fergusson,
2011), such as risky sexual behavior (Wu et al.,
2010) or depression (Mason et al.,
2008). Therefore, public health actors and researchers are working to identify factors that help understand and prevent the onset of these behaviors (e.g., Alcohol and Public Policy Group,
2010).
Previous research suggests that adolescents’ information management may be an important aspect to consider in the prevention of alcohol use. Specifically, negative associations have been found between disclosure to mothers and fathers and frequency of alcohol use (Jiménez-Iglesias et al.,
2013), whereas positive associations have been found between keeping secrets and hazardous drinking (Baudat et al.,
2020) as well as alcohol-related mental or physical health problems (Hartman et al.,
2015). It should be noted that these cross-sectional associations could potentially reflect the fact that adolescents’ information management not only contributes to and reinforces certain behavioral patterns, but is also shaped by these behavioral patterns (Marshall et al.,
2005). For example, longitudinal studies have shown that higher levels of disclosure predicted less hazardous drinking over time (Stavrinides et al.,
2010), whereas higher levels of lying predicted more frequent drinking (Lushin et al.,
2017). In addition, bidirectional associations were also found, with lower levels of kept secrets being associated with less frequent drinking over time, and frequent drinking being associated with greater subsequent secrets (McCann et al.,
2016).
Considering the normative aspect of concealment in adolescence discussed above, some authors have concluded that adolescents should use concealment strategies sparingly in order to promote their development as well as satisfactory relationships with their parents (e.g., Talwar & Crossman,
2011). In this sense, distinguishing patterns of disclosure, keeping secrets, and lying, and examining whether these patterns differ with respect to adolescents’ drinking could be a key element to understanding the paradox between “the dark side and light side” (Afifi et al.,
2007, p. 61) of information management. Person-centered approaches may be particularly useful in this respect to better understand the differences in information management patterns with respect to parenting and adolescent drinking.
Person-Centered Approaches to Adolescent Information Management
Recent works in the field of developmental psychology have taken a new turn in examining the diversity of family experiences during the adolescent period by using person-centered approaches (Frijns et al.,
2020). Whereas variable-centered approaches, which are predominantly employed in this literature, examine associations between variables and assumes that these links are similar across families, person-centered approaches allow identifying whether subgroups of similar subjects exist within a population (Howard & Hoffman,
2017). With respect to adolescents’ information management, these approaches have the advantage of providing a more nuanced view of the process of information management by identifying different subgroups of adolescents based on their use of disclosure, keeping secrets, and lying, and how these distinct patterns differ with respect to the quality of the parent-child relationship (Rote & Smetana,
2018) and adolescent outcomes (Elsharnouby & Dost-Gözkan,
2020).
To date, only a limited number of studies have used a person-centered approach to investigate the unique ways in which adolescents regulate information shared with their parents. Moreover, the few existing studies have focused on adolescents’ use of disclosure or keeping secrets (Elsharnouby & Dost-Gözkan,
2020) in the relationship with their mother specifically (Cumsille et al.,
2010) or without distinguishing between mother and father (Padilla-Walker et al.,
2018). For example, one longitudinal study (Padilla-Walker et al.,
2018) showed that the majority of adolescents (82%) experienced a gradual decrease in mean levels of disclosure to parents over the course of adolescence, while another group reported low and stable levels of disclosure (13%), and the third group reported a steep decrease in disclosure (5%). Group membership was also associated with perceived parenting and adjustment, with adolescents in the second profile (low-stable) reporting higher levels of delinquency, lower levels of prosocial behaviors toward the family, and lower levels of perceived maternal warmth. Given that adolescents generally disclose more information to their mothers than to their fathers (e.g., Smetana et al.,
2006), a joint examination of disclosure and concealment strategies used by adolescents in relationships with their mother and their father would be informative. Extending this work by considering both disclosing information to and keeping secrets from mother, father and best friends, a recent study (Elsharnouby & Dost-Gözkan,
2020) highlighted five information management profiles: Highest Disclosure to Parents-Lowest Secrecy; Average Disclosure and Secrecy; Low Disclosure-High Secrecy; Low Disclosure-Highest Parent Secrecy; Lowest Disclosure-Low Secrecy. Adolescents in profiles characterized by low mean levels of disclosure and by high mean levels of secret keeping reported low levels of well-being (i.e., low life satisfaction, low confidence in problem-solving, and high anxiety). However, this study did not include the lying strategy in the examination of information management profiles, nor did it examine whether profiles differ in terms of need-supportive parenting, autonomous reasons to disclose information, or alcohol use.