Why do we keep saying ‘I’m fine’? An investigation of the factors influencing disclosure of anxiety and low mood within social relationships.

Sub-clinical experiences of anxiety and low mood are ubiquitous to human experience and prevalent within the general population. They play an important role in quality of life and can be a risk factor for later mental health conditions. Disclosure of anxiety and low mood is associated with many positive outcomes and yet a reluctance to share these experiences persists. Self-disclosure in related contexts is influenced by many factors and this study sought to identify which factors influence the decision to disclose experiences of sub-clinical anxiety and low mood within social relationships. This study utilised a cross-sectional within-subjects design and data was collected using online surveys. The sample consisted of 203 participants, 176 (86.7%) females and 27 (13.3%) males, recruited from the general population through advertisements on social media and a research participation website. The results indicated that, of a broad variety of considered variables, disclosure of sub-clinical anxiety and low mood within social relationships was found to be associated with three factors: relationship quality, relationship type and expectation of burden. Decreased expectation of burdening a disclosure target and increased relationship quality were both associated with higher rates of emotional disclosure. Closer relationship types were found to be significantly related to higher rates of disclosure than more distant relationship types. This study highlights the distinction between disclosure of diagnostic labels and more usual human experience and suggests that research findings from disclosure of a mental health condition cannot be readily applied to sub-clinical difficulties. Limitations of this research and the literature more broadly were considered, notably the dominant use of cross-sectional designs and the pervasive homogeneity in study samples when considering gender, age and culture. Recommendations were made for more inclusive and longitudinal research, conducted in different cultural contexts, that consider a range of influencing factors relative to one another. Furthermore, implications for clinicians and policy makers are considered