Parent Support and Adolescent Disclosure about Romantic Relationships: Longitudinal Associations with Problem Behaviors

Parental support is a robust predictor of decreased adolescent problem behaviors (Mounts, 2002).  One reason for this is because parental support increases adolescents’ willingness to disclose information about their activities and whereabouts (Kerr, Stattin, & Burk, 2010). Parental support of and adolescent disclosure about romantic relationships are of interest because romantic experiences are a particularly sensitive topic of discussion for adolescents and their parents (Noller & Bagi, 1985), and in many cases are associated with increased problem behaviors, such as aggression and substance use (Cui et al., 2012). This study investigates whether adolescents’ disclosure about their romantic relationships mediates associations between parental support of adolescent romantic relationships and problem behaviors.

Participants were 99 adolescent couples in romantic relationships (N=198, M_age=16.45, SD =.98; mostly White [42%] and Latina/o [41%]) recruited at schools and through social media. They were provided a link to two online surveys, each six months apart.  At each assessment, adolescents self-reported on parental support of romantic relationships (Kan, McHale & Crouther, 2008) (α = .92) and their own disclosure about romantic relationships (Kerr & Stattin, 2000) (α = .92).  Adolescents also reported on their problem behaviors in the last 3 months, such as skipping school, stealing property, and staying out all night without parents’ permission (Ary et al., 1999) (α = .77).

We used path analysis in MPLUS 7.11 (Muthen & Muthen, 2013) to estimate the hypothesized relations.  To account for the nested nature of the data (individuals within couples) we ran an actor-partner model (APIM) and estimated only actor effects (see Kenny & Ledermann, 2010).  After controlling for adolescent disclosure and problem behaviors at Time1, results showed significant, but differing relations for males and females. For male adolescents parental support of romantic relationships predicted fewer adolescent problem behaviors indirectly through adolescent disclosure at p < .10 (c’= -.07, p < 08).  For females, the direct path from support of romantic relationships to problem behaviors was significant, though there was no mediation by disclosure.

            Our findings contribute to the growing literature acknowledging parental support as an important protective factor against adolescent problem behaviors; they suggest that it remains protective within the context of adolescent romantic relationships. Notable are gender differences in these associations, which may reflect parents’ differential socialization of male and female adolescents around romantic relationship issues, differences in males’ versus females’ participation in problem behaviors, or both.  These gender dynamics will be further explored and discussed.