Managing the Boundaries of Personal Authority Regarding Late Adolescent Romantic Relationships

The present research examined late adolescents’ management of information regarding their romantic relationships. Ninety-two late adolescents (M = 18.77; 56 females and 31 males) were asked to report the degree to which they disclosed information about their dating lives in four conceptually distinct domains: unsupervised activities, physical contact, personal information, and everyday activities. As predicted, female adolescents disclosed more than male adolescents, adolescents disclosed more information to mothers than to fathers, and the extent of disclosure varied by domain of issue. Moreover, while disclosure was associated with attachment to parents and adolescents’ social-cognitive beliefs about the issues, the associations varied by domain of issue. Results were discussed in regard to adolescents’ active management of boundaries of legitimate authority.No embarg