Parental apologies and adolescents' information management strategies: Social learning and self-determination perspectives

Abstract

Adolescents' willingness to share information with their parents about their life is related to their positive adjustment. As such, it is important to identify factors that lead adolescents to share this knowledge with parents. This study takes a step in this direction by examining the role of parental apologies following parental offenses, in relation to adolescents' usage of three main information management strategies: disclosure, lying, and secrecy. Using a sample of 288 mid-to-late adolescents, we assessed parental apologies and adolescents' information management strategies at three levels (global, situational, and hypothetical), using multiple methods (correlational and experimental). Overall, results suggest that parental apologies characterized by more need-supportive elements tend to be positively associated with adolescents' disclosure, whereas those characterized by more need-thwarting elements tend to be positively associated with adolescents' lying and, to some extent, secrecy.