Open up or close down: how do parental reactions affect youth information management?

The purpose of this study was to test a process model of youths' information management. Using three waves of longitudinal data collected from 982 youths, we modeled parents' positive and negative reactions to disclosure predicting youths' feelings about their parents, in turn predicting youths' disclosure and secrecy about their daily activities. Gender, age, and psychopathic personality traits were examined as potential moderators. The results showed that parents' negative reactions were associated with increases in youths' feeling controlled and decreases in youths' feeling connected to their parents, which in turn, predicted increased secrecy and decreased disclosure. In contrast, parents' positive reactions predicted increased feeling connected to parents, which in turn predicted increased disclosure. Moreover, these predictive pathways were modified by youths' psychopathic personality traits. Our results are consistent with a transactional model suggesting that how parents react to youths' disclosure affects youths' future decisions to provide their parents with information about their daily activities. The results point to the importance of considering youths' feelings and characteristics.