Value of Self-Disclosure to Parents and Peers During Adolescence

Wanting to matter and learning to care: A neurodevelopmental window of opportunity for (Pro) social learning?

Wanting to matter-to feel socially recognized, appreciated, and capable of actions that benefit others-represents a fundamental motivation in human development. The motivational salience of mattering appears to increase in adolescence. Evidence suggests this is related to pubertal increases in the incentive salience for gaining social value and personal agency. This can provide a useful heuristic for understanding motivational proclivities (i.e. wanting to matter) that influence action-outcome learning as young adolescents are exploring and learning how to navigate increasingly complex social and relational environments. Adolescence also brings new capacities, motives, and opportunities for learning to care about and contribute to the benefit of others. Together, these create a window of opportunity: a sensitive period for learning to gain salient feelings of mattering through caring prosocial actions and valued societal contributions. Successfully discovering ways of mattering by doing things that matter to others may contribute to formative socio-emotional learning about self/other. Advances in understanding these social and relational learning processes and their neurodevelopmental underpinnings can inform strategies to improve developmental trajectories of social competence and wellbeing among adolescents growing up in a rapidly changing and increasingly techno-centric world.

Reciprocal self-disclosure makes children feel more loved by their parents in the moment: A proof-of-concept experiment

Feeling loved by one's parents is critical for children's health and well-being. How can such feelings be fostered? A vital feature of loving interactions is reciprocal self-disclosure, where individuals disclose intimate information about themselves. In a proof-of-concept experiment, we examined whether encouraging reciprocal self-disclosure in parent-child dyads would make children feel more loved during the conversation. Participants were 218 children (ages 8-13, 50% girls, 94% Dutch) and one of their parents (ages 28-56, 62% women, 90% Dutch). Parent-child dyads received a list of 14 questions and took turns asking them each other for 9 min. Dyads were assigned randomly to engage in self-disclosure (questions invoking escalated intimacy) or small talk (questions invoking minimal intimacy). Before and after, children reported how loved they felt by their parent during the conversation. Self-disclosure made children feel more loved during the conversation than did small talk. Compared to small talk, self-disclosure did not instigate conversations that were lengthier or more positive; rather, it instigated conversations that were more emotionally charged (reflecting anger, anxiety, and sadness), social (discussing family and friends), reflective (creating insight), and meaningful (addressing deeply personal topics, including the passing of loved ones). The dyad's gender composition did not significantly moderate these effects. Our research suggests that reciprocal self-disclosure can make children feel more loved in the moment, uncovers linguistic signatures of reciprocal self-disclosure, and offers developmental scientists a tool to examine causal effects of reciprocal self-disclosure in parent-child dyads. Future work should examine long-term effects in everyday parent-child interactions. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: How can parents make children feel more loved by them in the moment? We theorize that these feelings can be cultivated through reciprocal self-disclosure. In a proof-of-concept experiment, we examined effects of reciprocal self-disclosure versus small talk in 218 parent-child dyads, with children aged 8-13. Self-disclosure (vs. small talk) made children feel more loved during the conversation. Linguistically, self-disclosure instigated conversations that were more emotionally charged, social, reflective, and meaningful. This research provides an experimental method to study self-disclosure in parent-child dyads and suggests that self-disclosure can make children feel more loved in the moment.

Balancing listening and action is key to supportive parenting

Parents convey high-quality listening when they pay close attention and show acceptance and comprehension of what their child expresses. These behaviors are fundamental to supporting closeness and autonomy, increasing well-being, and fostering future self-disclosures. Whether and how parental listening is balanced with action may depend on the domain of interaction. When children and parents are exploring each other's perspectives or sharing, and when children are seeking comfort for worries or sadness (attachment), listening dominates. When parents are called to discipline or keep safe, listening helps inform parents' actions, but may need to be curtailed to ensure effective action. Models of parental listening and action represent a next step in the literature and inform research in self-determination theory and perceived parent responsiveness.

School bullying victimization and post-traumatic stress symptoms in adolescents: the mediating roles of feelings of insecurity and self-disclosure

BACKGROUND

Posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSSs) is known to be a typical problem for school bullying victims. However, the underlying mechanism between school bullying victimization and PTSSs remains unknown. This study examined the mediating roles of feelings of insecurity and self-disclosure in the relationship between school bullying victimization and PTSSs in adolescents.

METHODS

Self-report questionnaires were used to assess 5013 adolescents; 443 of them with school bullying experiences were selected to carry out this study.

RESULTS

The results found that school bullying victimization was directly related to more PTSSs, indirectly associated with more PTSSs through feelings of insecurity, and through the path from feelings of insecurity to self-disclosure. However, school bullying victimization did not exert an indirect effect on PTSSs through one step effect of self-disclosure.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings indicated that feelings of insecurity and self-disclosure mediated the relationship between school bullying victimization and PTSSs. The psychological service should reduce adolescents' feelings of insecurity and give them more chances to disclose their bullying experiences.