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Much attention has been given to self-disclosure as an important component of parent-adolescent relationships. The authors address gaps in the current literature via a multimethod, multicultural design, interviewing 120 adolescents in Costa Rica, Thailand, and South Africa about their reasons for disclosing to parents, and then constructing items to represent the essence of the interview data and administering these items (along with measures of the parent-adolescent relationship and adolescent characteristics) to 2,100 adolescents in the same cultures. Analyses focus on discerning reasons for disclosure and on identifying profiles of adolescents who are more likely to disclose. Results reveal that adolescents from different cultures generally disclose for similar reasons and in similar patterns and that adolescents who disclose report social competence and, consistent with past research, positive parenting. (Contains 5 tables.)

The conceptualization and measurement of parental support is predominately the work of adult researchers from the West. This mixed-method study reports the parental behaviors that adolescents themselves perceive as supportive. Data come from the Cross-National Adolescent Project, a survey of adolescents in 12 nations or ethnic groups in Africa, Asia, Australia, the Americas, the Balkans, Europe, and the Middle East. The authors find that adolescents in all 12 settings validated the substantive content of existing survey measures of parental supportive behaviors. Adolescents in all settings also expanded the list of supportive behaviors. When parents provide a rare and valued commodity, it is perceived as love. The specific commodities, which include quality time, basic necessities, and support for education, vary across culture. In the discussion the authors describe how parenting strategies that have been interpreted previously as reinforcing distinct cultural purposes may, in fact, serve the same purpose. (Contains 3 tables, 1 figure and 6 notes.)