Heterogeneity and Change in Adolescents' Configurations of Disclosure and Concealment Strategies

INTRODUCTION: The objective of this research was to evaluate the heterogeneity and change in the configuration of adolescents' information disclosure and concealment toward their parents, using a person-centered approach and considering different domains of social-cognitive domain theory. METHOD: = 15.02, SD = 1.54, 76.4% female). A latent class analysis was conducted to identify heterogeneity in adolescents' disclosure and concealment by issue; subsequently, a latent transition analysis modeled membership transitions over time. RESULTS: For the younger adolescent, a class emerged that disclose information about all consulted issues (i.e., personal issues regarding activities, personal issues regarding interpersonal relationships and prudential issues), a second class that conceals information about all consulted issues, a third class that conceals information regarding personal issues that circumscribe interpersonal relationships, and a fourth class that conceals information about both types of personal issues. For the older adolescent, only three classes emerged: those who disclosed everything, those who concealed everything, and those who concealed only personal issues regarding interpersonal relationships. Most individuals showed a high probability of remaining in their original groups over time; however, adolescents concealing only interpersonal issues were the exception, showing a higher probability of transitioning into the disclosure group. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest adolescents share information with their parents to a certain extent, while also maintaining privacy regarding specific issues. These findings contradict the monotonic decline of disclosure during adolescence that has been reported by studies using a variable-centered approach.