Associations among autonomy beliefs, psychological control, and adolescents' disclosure about their everyday activities.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rochester. Dept. of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, 2012.Adolescents gradually gain decision-making autonomy across adolescence, but they often want more autonomy than parents grant. These discrepancies in desired versus actual autonomy may influence their perceptions of their parents and their willingness to tell parents about their lives. Two studies examined associations among discrepant perceptions of family decision-making, parental psychological control, and adolescent disclosure of their everyday activities, as examined within the framework of social domain theory. It was hypothesized that greater discrepancies in family decision-making, particularly when adolescents want more autonomy than is granted, may lead adolescents to perceive parents as more psychologically controlling, which would lead them to disclose less to parents about their lives. Study 1 was a cross-sectional study of 109 7th and 10th grade adolescents who reported on actual and ideal decision-making, their mothers' psychological control, and their disclosure to mothers about activities in different domains. Greater discrepancies between ideal and actual decision-making were associated with less disclosure of personal and, for girls only, prudential issues. However, discrepancies were not mediated by psychological control, although for girls, psychological control was associated with more disclosure of personal and multifaceted issues. Study 2 was a three-wave longitudinal study of 174 10th and 11th grade adolescents and their parents. Participants reported on the adolescents' actual decision-making, parents' psychological control, and adolescents' disclosure. Discrepancies between adolescents' and parents' perceptions of actual family decision-making at Wave 1 were not associated with Wave 2 psychological control or Wave 3 disclosure. For personal and multifaceted issues, adolescents' greater decision-making autonomy at Wave 1 was associated with less disclosure about these issues at Wave 3. The results highlight the importance of adolescents' perceptions of their ideal versus actual decision-making autonomy and their influence on their willing disclosure to parents about their lives