Suchergebnisse

This study examined parents' reported use of peer management behaviors (i.e., communicating preferences, communicating disapproval, supporting friendships, and information seeking) and linked these behaviors to (a) adolescentsapos; self‐reported psychosocial adjustment and friendships and (b) parents' beliefs about adolescents' peer relationships (i.e., perceived efficacy in managing adolescents' friendships and concerns about adolescents' friendships). The participants were 269 parents (161 mothers, 108 fathers) and their predominantly White adolescents in Grades 6 and 9 (N=177). Results suggest that parents may be more apt to use some behaviors (e.g., communicating disapproval and information seeking) when there are indications that their adolescents are engaged in problem behaviors and have friends who are deviant. In addition, parents' concerns about their adolescents' friends mediate the relationship between adolescent problem behaviors and parents' communications of disapproval. Parents' peer management is promising as a route to understand further the nature of parent–peer linkages.

A lack of specificity between two types of disclosure has emerged in research on adolescents' relationship and communication with their parents. Researchers are obscuring the distinctions between self‐disclosure and routine disclosure (i.e., disclosure of their whereabouts and activities to parents). In this article, we describe where the problems have arisen and then outline the conceptual differences between the two. Illustrations of how the two types of disclosure overlap or co‐occur are provided to demonstrate how fruitful areas for future research can emerge from attending to the distinctions between these two constructs.