Adult Children's Self-disclosure To Parents

In emerging adulthood,the development needs of individuals and parents are seriously divergent so that the communication between adult children and parents becoming a very important topic.Specifically,adult children yearn for independence,aiming to make friends and get a higher socioeconomic status.Parents aim to pursuit happiness and meaning in life,and pay more attention to intimate relationship,especially parent-child relationship.However,there are still few literature focusing on the characteristics of parent-child communication in emerging adulthood and its mechanism,and the research in the context of Chinese culture is rare.The present study intend to explore the characteristics of parent-child communication in emerging adulthood and its mechanism through two sub-studies.In study 1 we collected 515 emerging adults to finish a package of questionnaires including Revised Self-disclosure Scale,Communal-Exchange Scale,Perceived Responsiveness Scale,Relationship of Intimacy Scale,Satisfaction Scale and Flourishing Scale to explore the characteristics of parent-child communication in emerging adulthood and its mechanism.Study 2 focusing on the depth and valence of self-disclosure of adult children.Recruiting 107 emerging adults to finish an online chat task,the depth and valence of adult children's self-disclosure were manipulated.Participants were randomly assigned to groups of positive emotion disclosure,negative emotion disclosure and fact disclosure.Study 2 aims to use the method of text analysis to further explore the content characteristics of parent-child communication in emerging adulthood and further examine its mechanism.The main findings are as follows:(1)Chinese adult children were more likely to disclose positive than negative emotion to their parents.(2)Chinese adult children were more likely to talk about time and pay more attention to the past when they disclose positive things,while they were more likely to talk about body when they disclose negative things.(3)The depth and valence of self-disclosure were positively related to parent-child relationship quality.(4)The depth and valence of self-disclosure were positively related to mental health.(5)The self-disclosure of Chinese adult children was positively related to perceived responsiveness.(6)The results of questionnaire study showed that the communal-exchange orientations can moderate the relationship between self-disclosure and perceived responsiveness.Specifically,communal orientation can improve the level of perceived responsiveness and buffer the positive relationship between self-disclosure and perceived responsiveness.Exchange orientation can reduce the level of perceived responsiveness and strengthen the positive relationship between self-disclosure and perceived responsiveness.(7)Perceived responsiveness mediate the relationship between self-disclosure and parent-child relationship quality.(8)Perceived responsiveness mediate the relationship between self-disclosure and mental health.(9)The results of questionnaire study showed that the interaction of self-disclosure and communal-exchange orientations can influence the parent-child relationship and mental health,which work through the perceived responsiveness.