Longitudinal associations among routine disclosure, the parent–child relationship, and adolescents’ prosocial and delinquent behaviors

The purpose of this study was to explore whether routine child disclosure to parents was longitudinally related to adolescent prosocial and delinquent outcomes via the parent–child relationship (parental knowledge, parental autonomy granting, and parental warmth/support). The participants included 463 adolescents (48% male, 73% European American, 37% single parent families) and their mothers and fathers who completed questionnaires across three waves from early to late adolescence ( M age of adolescent at Time 1 = 13 years old, Time 3 = 17 years old). The results showed that routine child disclosure was longitudinally associated with prosocial behavior toward family via greater parental warmth. Child disclosure was negatively related to delinquency via parental knowledge. Implications regarding the role of child disclosure on the parent–child relationship and the development of adolescent behavior are discussed.

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Mothers and Fathers, Sons and Daughters: Parental Knowledge and Quality of the Parent‒Child Relationship as Predictors of Delinquency in Same- and Cross–Sex Parent‒Child Dyads

Journal of Child and Family Studies ◽

10.1007/s10826-019-01409-5 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 28 (7) ◽

pp. 1850-1861

Author(s):

Glenn D. Walters

Keyword(s):

Parental Knowledge ◽

Parent Child Relationship ◽

Mothers And Fathers ◽

Child Relationship ◽

Parent Child

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Parental Knowledge of Children’s Screen Time: The Role of Parent-Child Relationship and Communication

Communication Research ◽

10.1177/0093650220952227 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 009365022095222

Author(s):

Laura Marciano ◽

Serena Petrocchi ◽

Anne-Linda Camerini

Keyword(s):

Screen Time ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Structural Equation Models ◽

Parental Knowledge ◽

Parent Child Relationship ◽

Self Disclosure ◽

Child Relationship ◽

Parent Child

The ubiquity of media in children’s lives makes it increasingly difficult for parents to keep track of their children’s screen time, leading to considerable discrepancies in parent- and child-report. In the present study, we aimed to examine if and how these discrepancies can be explained by parent-child communication, in terms of children’s self-disclosure, secrecy, and parental solicitation, and to what extend the quality of the parent-child relationship can influence these communication patterns. We tested two structural equation models to investigate the absolute discrepancy between parent and child estimates of children’s screen time and parental underestimation, using dyadic data from 854 11-year-olds and their parents, in Switzerland. Our results showed that children’s self-disclosure and secrecy behaviors were significantly associated with parental knowledge, where the relationship between self-disclosure and parental knowledge of children’s screen time was the stronger among the two. Moreover, a good parent-child relationship, especially parents’ ability in perspective taking, was significantly related to increased self-disclosure and decreased secrecy behaviors by children.

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