Keeping secrets from parents: Daily variations among poor, urban

adolescents
Judith G. Smetana
*
, Myriam Villalobos, Ronald D. Rogge, Marina Tasopoulos-Chan
Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, University of Rochester, Meliora Hall, RC 270266, Rochester, NY 14627, USA
Keywords:
Adolescentparent relationships
Daily diary methods
Urban youth
Disclosure
Secrecy
Relationships with parents
Problem behavior
a b s t r a c t
Daily variations in secrecy with mothers and fathers were examined in 108 poor, urban,
diverse middle adolescents (M15.16 years, SD0.89). Adolescents completed online
diaries over 14 days assessing secrecy from parents about school, personal, and multi-
faceted activities (e.g., staying out late), and bad behavior. Three-level hierarchical linear
models indicated that there were signicant daily uctuations in adolescents secrecy with
mothers and that adolescents kept more secrets from mothers about personal than other
activities. Secrecy with mothers also was associated with greater involvement in problem
behavior. For both mothers and fathers, secrecy on the current day was associated with
greater secrecy on the previous day and with poorer overall relationships (as aggregated
across study days) with that parent. Thus, for mothers, secrecy appeared to be associated
with both stable factors and daily variations, whereas for fathers, secrecy was associated
primarily with stable factors. The results provide a detailed picture of secrecy in diverse
adolescents everyday lives.
2009 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier
Ltd. All rights reserved.
There has been increased interest in the developmental sciences in disclosure, deception, and secrecy in adolescent
parent relationships (Smetana, 2008). Researchers have asserted that disclosure and secrecy are not merely opposite ends of
the same continuum but are conceptually distinct (Finkenauer, Engels, & Meeus, 2002). Unlike nondisclosure, secrecy
consistently has been associated with poor adjustment (Finkenauer et al., 2002; Laird & Marrero, 2008; Larson & Chastain,
1990; Smetana, Metzger, Gettman, & Campione-Barr, 2006), especially in early adolescence (Keijsers, Frijns, Branje, & Meeus,
2008). Thus far, however, research on secrecy has been limited by a reliance on largely European or European American
samples, the use of global assessments that do not distinguish among the different activities that adolescents conceal or keep
secret, and the lack of attention to daily variations. The present study advanced our understanding by examining daily
variations in secrecy about different types of activities with mothers and fathers in a sample of lower socioeconomic status
urban teens of diverse ethnicities.
Denitions, assessments, and correlates of secrecy
Although previous research suggests that secrecy is not adaptive for adolescent development, the denition of secrecy has
lacked conceptual clarity. Secrecy and lying have been conated in some research. Engels, Finkenauer, and van Kooten (2006)
found a strong (0.59) association between secrecy and lying, but the strength of the association also indicated that the
constructs are not identical. A, Caughlin, and A (2007) have asserted that secrecy and deception need to be
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 1 585 275 4592; fax: 1 585 273 1100.
E-mail address: smetana@psych.rochester.edu (J.G. Smetana).
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Adolescence
j ournal homepage: www. el sevi er. com/ l ocat e/ j ado
0140-1971/$ see front matter 2009 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2009.04.003
Journal of Adolescence 33 (2010) 321331
distinguished. In their view, secrecy can involve outright lying, as well as acts of omission, such as leaving out important
information that the target might want to know. These both entail deception, inasmuch as the secret keeper intends to hide
information from another and, therefore, intentionally induce false beliefs. But A et al. (2007) claimed that secrecy also
includes instances where the secret-keepers intention is not to induce false impressions but to make no impression that is,
to keep information private. Intentions may vary as a function of the type of activity kept secret, highlighting the importance
of taking a more differentiated approach to secrecy.
Most studies have examined adolescents secrecy with parents using global measures that do not distinguish the different
activities that teens conceal or keep secret. In contrast, based on social domain theory (Smetana, 2006; Turiel, 2006), Smetana
et al. (Smetana et al., 2006; Smetana, Villalobos, Tasopoulos-Chan, Gettman, & Campione-Barr, 2009) have investigated
adolescents disclosure and secrecy with parents regarding different types of activities, including prudential activities (dened
as pertaining to teens comfort, safety, and health, such as drinking alcohol at parties or trying marijuana), personal activities
(dened as acts that are outside the bounds of social regulation because they pertain to control over ones body, privacy, and
personal preferences, such as how to spend allowance or what to do with free time), and peer activities, which overlap the
prudential or conventional (social norms) and personal domains and thus were considered multifaceted. In keeping with A
et al. (2007), Smetana et al. (2009) found that primarily European American lower middle class adolescents did not share
information about personal activities, and to some extent, multifaceted activities, because they believe that these are private
matters and not harmful, whereas they did not share information about prudential activities because they feared parental
disapproval or punishment.
Furthermore, in a study of predominantly European American families with 9th and 12th graders, Smetana et al. (2006)
found that adolescents and parents viewed teenagers as highly obligated to tell parents about prudential activities, whereas
they viewed disclosure regarding personal activities as discretionary and up to the child. Obligations to disclose to parents
about peers fell in-between. They also found that 9th graders were most secretive about peer activities, less secretive about
personal activities, and least secretive about schoolwork. However, 12th graders did not differentiate between secrets kept
about peers and personal activities, supporting the notion that autonomy broadens with development. These ndings
highlight the importance of differentiating the types of activities that teens keep secret from parents.
Ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic status variations in secrecy
In addition, very little research thus far has focused on secrecy among adolescents varying in socioeconomic status or
ethnicity. Urban parents living in poverty are more likely than other parents to use harsh, inconsistent, and sometimes
ineffective parenting (Elder, Eccles, Ardelt, & Lord, 1995; Kelley, Power, & Wimbush, 1992; Magnuson & Duncan, 2002;
McLoyd, 1998b). As more responsive, accepting, and authoritative parenting has been associated with adolescents greater
disclosure (Darling, Cumsille, Caldwell, & Dowdy, 2006; Smetana et al., 2006; Soenens, Vansteenkiste, Luyckx, & Goossens,
2006), the harsh parenting found to be characteristic of poor urban parents may increase teens desires to keep their behavior
secret from parents. In addition, both Latino and African American families have a hierarchical structure that might preclude
teens open disclosure to parents about some aspects of their behavior (Halgunseth, Ispa, & Rudy, 2006; Harwood, Leyen-
decker, Carlson, Asencio, & Miller, 2002; McAdoo, 2002). Latino parents have been found to be more controlling than African
American parents, who in turn, are more controlling than European origin parents (Bulcroft, Carmody, & Bulcroft, 1996),
suggesting that there may be corresponding ethnic differences in adolescents secrecy from parents. However, others (Way,
Greene, & Mukherjee, 2008) have found that regardless of ethnicity, poor, urban minority teens perceived their parents as
increasingly restrictive about some issues (such as friendship) until teens were about 16 years of age, when perceptions of
parental restrictiveness declined with age. Thus, whether there are ethnic differences in secrecy in samples of poor, urban
youth remains to be determined.
Daily variations in secrecy
In a qualitative study of Mexican American teens perceptions of good parentadolescent relationships, Crockett, Brown,
Russell, and Shen (2007) found that having open communication with parents was a central theme, which was emphasized
more by girls than boys and in relation to mothers more than fathers. Furthermore, girls openness with mothers varied from
day to day, suggesting that disclosure and secrecy may uctuate. Yet daily variations in adolescents secrecy with parents about
their activities have not been examined. Everyday experience methods, such as daily diaries (Bolger, Davis, & Rafaeli, 2003) are
ideal for examining daily uctuations in adolescents secrecy with mothers and fathers. Daily diaries can elucidate whether
keeping secrets uctuates as a function of the quality of relationships with the parent that day, as Crockett et al.s (2007) study
suggests, or whether secrecy is associated with more stable, person-level factors, such as problembehavior (Engels et al., 2006)
or the overall quality of adolescentparent relationships (Darling et al., 2006; Smetana et al., 2006). Daily diary studies can
illuminate howsecrecy withparents functions in everyday life, including howmuch secrecy varies on a daily basis and the social
and cultural variables associated with individual differences. Daily diary methods also can take advantage of the sequential
nature of the data to determine whether events occurring on preceding days inuence behavior on subsequent days.
The conceptual distinctions in secrecy (A et al., 2007), as well as the ndings regarding adolescents perceptions of their
obligations to disclose to parents (Smetana et al., 2006), also suggest that daily uctuations in secrecy also may differ as
a function of the types of secrets adolescents keep. Adolescents of different ethnicities have been found to desire greater
J.G. Smetana et al. / Journal of Adolescence 33 (2010) 321331 322
autonomy from parents, particularly over personal issues (Fuligni, 1998; Smetana, 2000). Thus, youth from diverse back-
grounds may view themselves as having the right to keep personal activities secret from parents. Previous research also has
shown that lower levels of parental acceptance and less closeness to parents are associated with greater secrecy about
personal (and for closeness, multifaceted) issues (Smetana et al., 2006). This suggests that secrecy about personal and
multifaceted activities may be more strongly associated on a daily basis with the amount of time spent together and the
quality of relationships that day than secrets kept about other activities. That is, teens may keep personal and multifaceted
activities secret froma parent more on days when they feel more emotionally distant and spend less time with that parent. In
contrast, more stable factors such as teens involvement in problem behavior may be associated with keeping secrets about
undesirable or risky (prudential) behavior. This is consistent with research indicating that adolescents keep things secret
when they disagree with parental rules (Darling et al., 2006) or fear parental disapproval (Smetana et al., 2009). On the other
hand, adolescents may seek to maintain harmony in the family while getting their way by concealing their personal activities
from their parents (Brown, Bakkan, Nguyen, & Von Bank, 2007; Darling et al., 2006; Engels et al., 2006; Finkenauer et al.,
2002; Keijsers et al., 2008).
The present study
In the present study, we used daily diary methods collected over a 14-day period as well as more traditional paper and
pencil survey methods to examine the inuence of both more stable individual differences and daily uctuations on poor,
urban teens secrecy with mothers and fathers. Youth in the present study were fromAfrican, Latino (primarily Puerto Rican),
and European backgrounds. Consistent with recent research (Darling et al., 2006; Kerr & Stattin, 2000; Smetana et al., 2006;
Soenens et al., 2006; Stattin & Kerr, 2000), we focused on middle adolescence. A novel feature of the present study was that
we capitalized on the great appeal and use of the Internet among teens (Bolger et al., 2003) by collecting daily diaries using
the Internet.
Based on previous research (Smetana et al., 2006, 2009; Youniss & Smollar, 1985), we examined daily variations in secrecy
with parents about multifaceted, personal, and school activities (for instance, grades on tests or schoolwork). We also
included a set of items pertaining to bad or risky behavior that were similar to the prudential risk items examined in previous
research (Smetana, 2000; Smetana et al., 2006) but were more open-ended to increase the likelihood that they were relevant
on a daily basis. Previous ndings (Smetana et al., 2006) led us to expect that overall, teens would keep more secrets about
personal and prudential activities than multifaceted activities or school.
We examined whether daily uctuations in secrecy with parents were associated with relationship quality and amount of
time spent together that day, as well as secrecy on the previous day (modeled as a daily variation). We hypothesized that there
would be signicant daily variations in secrecy with parents and that adolescents would conceal less on days when they spent
more time with their parents, reported better relationships, and had not kept secrets about those activities on the previous
day. Teens may engage in different activities on weekdays versus weekends (for instance, they are not in school but may have
more opportunities to engage in risky behavior). Thus, we also examined differences in secrecy on weekdays versus
weekends.
We also hypothesized that daily uctuations in secrecy would be moderated by gender, ethnicity, and domain of the
activity. More specically, we hypothesized that adolescents would keep fewer secrets about personal activities on days when
they spent more time together and reported better relationships with that parent. Previous research provides conicting
evidence regarding potential ethnic differences in secrecy. The more hierarchical structure of African American and Latino
families as compared to majority families (Halgunseth et al., 2006; Harwood et al., 2002; McAdoo, 2002) and ethnic
differences in parental control (Bulcroft et al., 1996) suggests that secrecy with parents might be greater among minority than
majority adolescents, but other research suggests that there may be few overall ethnic differences in a diverse urban sample
(Elder et al., 1995; Magnuson & Duncan, 2002; McLoyd, 1998b; Way et al., 2008). Therefore, we did not expect to nd mean
level differences in secrecy among Latino, African American, and European American adolescents. We examined interactions
among ethnicity, gender, and domain and expected to nd some complex interactions. For instance, research suggesting that
African American girls have especially close relationships with their mothers (Cauce et al., 1996) led us to hypothesize that
African American girls would keep fewer secrets about personal and multifaceted activities on a daily basis to their mothers
than would other girls.
Based on research indicating that greater secrecy is associated with more problem behavior and maladjustment (Finke-
nauer et al., 2002; Smetana et al., 2006), we hypothesized that more involvement in problem behavior would be associated
with greater secrecy, but especially secrets about bad behavior and multifaceted activities. As rates of problem behavior
typically are higher among boys than girls (Loeber & Stouthamer-Loeber, 1998), we expected that boys would keep more
secrets about bad behavior on a daily basis (and particularly on weekends) than would girls, because they have more to hide.
The ndings from Smetana et al. (2006) led us to expect that boys would keep more secrets about personal (but not other)
activities than would girls. The analyses also examined the inuence of demographic factors like adolescents age, family
marital status, and generational status (in Latino families) that could potentially inuence secrecy with parents. To
summarize, the aim of this study was to examine secrecy with mothers and fathers about different activities in a sample of
diverse, lower socioeconomic status, urban middle adolescents. We expected that both daily uctuations and stable
individual differences would be associated with secrecy in our sample.
J.G. Smetana et al. / Journal of Adolescence 33 (2010) 321331 323
Methods
Participants/sample
The sample for this study consisted of 108 adolescents (M15.16 years, SD 0.89, n 50 males and 58 females) drawn
from 9th and 10th grade classrooms in an urban high school in the Northeastern United States. Participants were 37% Latino
(21 males and 19 females), 40% African American (15 males and 28 females), 15% European American (9 males and 7 females),
and 8% other (primarily biracial or multiracial; 5 males and 4 females). Ethnicity did not differ signicantly by sex. Consistent
with the Latino population in the geographical area, the Latino students were primarily (73%) Puerto Rican, with the rest 8%
Dominican, 4.5% each Cuban and Mexican American, and 10% part Puerto Rican or other. Puerto Rican students did not differ
from the other Latino students in age, gender, demographic background, language spoken at home or place of birth (U.S. or
foreign born). Thus, Latino students were treated as a single group in the analyses.
Most Latino adolescents (61%) reported being born in the United States, compared to youth from European (94%), African
(93%), and other (83%) backgrounds, who were almost entirely second and third generation. Latino teens mothers and fathers
were predominately born outside of the United States (77% and 75%), whereas the percentages were much lower for European
American (6% and 13%), African American (12% and 19%) and other teens (26% and 35%). Most Latino youth reported speaking
both English and Spanish at home (77%), whereas 9% reported speaking only English at home.
Participating students lived in two-parent families with two biological parents (40%), stepparent families (9%), mother-
headed single-parent households (38%), father-headed single-parent households (7%), and with other relatives or unrelated
adults (5%). Family status differed signicantly according to ethnicity, c
2
(108) 10.87, p <0.01, but not gender. Latino,
European American, and other adolescents were more likely to live in two-parent biological families (53%, 44%, and 66%,
respectively), than were African American teens (22%), the majority of whom resided in single-parent mother-headed
households (56%).
Adolescents reported that 19% of mothers and fathers had not completed high school, 38% of mothers and 44% of fathers
had graduated but had no further education beyond high school, 21% of mothers and 11% of fathers had some college, and 16%
of mothers and 12% of fathers had a four-year college degree or further graduate training. Parents education did not differ
according to teens gender or ethnicity. Although we did not obtain data on parents incomes or occupations, 85% of the
students at the high school qualied for federal reduced-price or free lunches, an indicator of poverty status.
Another 21 adolescents returned parent permission forms but did not complete the study. Of these, 9 lled out the initial
questionnaires but then did not complete any of the online diaries (despite follow-up phone calls), and 12 completed an
average of three diaries during the rst week and were dropped. Teens who were dropped versus retained did not differ
signicantly in age, gender, ethnicity, family status or parental education, nor did their scores differ signicantly on any of the
initial surveys. They did, however, have lower current and past grade point averages than students who completed the study,
ts(115) 2.17, 2.28, ps <0.05. The response rate on the 14 daily diaries for students who completed the study was 94%
(SD10%). Thus, 99% of respondents gave diary data on 13 of the 14 days of the study, for a total of 1525 daily observations
across four domains of behavior or 6100 Level 1 observations (see the description of the three-level model, below).
Initial assessment
Problem behavior
Participants rated their involvement in problem behavior using 11 items from the Problem Behavior Survey (PBS; Mason,
Cauce, Gonzales, & Hiraga, 1996). The measure was modied slightly for this study to omit some of the more serious, violent
behaviors, which we have found to be rare in community samples of adolescents, and to include more everyday instances of
problem behavior. Even so, the mean level of problem behavior, as shown in Table 1, was relatively low. Adolescents rated
items focusing on minor issues of deviance (drink beer or alcohol, smoke cigarettes, use marijuana, go to school high or drunk,
minor theft, ghting, vandalize property, truancy, disobey at school, stay out past midnight) on a 7-point scale ranging from1
(never happens) to 7 (happens very often). The total sample alpha was 0.77, but perhaps reecting the smaller sample sizes,
alphas were lower (from 0.63 to 0.71) when examined separately within ethnic groups.
Table 1
Means (SDs) and correlations for study variables.
Variable M SD 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
1. Secrecy with mother 1.90 0.86 1.00 0.89** 0.31** 0.26* 0.28** 0.22* 0.10
2. Secrecy with father 1.87 0.90 1.00 0.23 0.30* 0.09 0.14 0.07
3. Relationship with mother 3.66 0.64 1.00 0.75** 0.20* 0.75** 0.37**
4. Relationship with father 3.55 0.71 1.00 0.35** 0.75** 0.70**
5. Problem behavior 1.68 0.62 1.00 0.17 0.27*
6. Time Spent with Mother 2.96 0.91 1.00 0.74**
7. Time spent with father 2.73 0.97 1.00
Note: *p <0.05, **p <0.01.
J.G. Smetana et al. / Journal of Adolescence 33 (2010) 321331 324
Daily diaries
Adolescents rated how much they concealed or kept secret from mothers or fathers each of 14 behaviors that day on
ve-point scales ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (a lot). The behaviors included three bad behavior items (anything I did that
might be risky or unsafe; anything Ive done that my parents might not approve of; and any problems I might have had), three
school items (my schoolwork, assignments, or grades; what happened in school today; how I did or my grades on tests or
schoolwork), three multifaceted items (if I stayed up too late, stayed out late, or came home late; if I spent time with my
boyfriend or girlfriend, and my interactions with others during the day), and ve personal items (my true feelings, howI spent
my free time; a boy or girl I like or have a crush on; what I talked about with friends; who I spent time with). Assessed
separately for the three ethnic groups and by type of activity, alphas (collapsed across the study days) ranged from0.92 to 0.99
for secrecy with mothers and from 0.95 to 0.97 for fathers.
Based on previous diary studies of daily relationship quality (Birnbaum, Reis, Mikulincer, Gillath, & Orpaz, 2006),
participants rated an item(today my relationship with
d
was.) on a ve-point scale ranging from1 (terrible) to 5 (terric)
and also rated on a ve-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) three items pertaining to their
relationships that day with each target: we have a lot of conict (reverse scored), our relationship was pleasant, we were
in tune). Mean daily responses were obtained. For the different ethnic groups, alphas for daily relationships ranged from0.77
to 0.92 for mothers and from 0.77 to 0.82 for fathers. Participants also rated on a ve-point scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5
(strongly agree) the amount of time spent together (we spent a lot of time interacting).
Procedures
Researchers visited 9
th
and 10
th
grade homeroom classes in an urban high school to tell students about the research;
interested students took home information letters, parent permission forms, and student assent forms. Bilingual students
were offered parent permission letters in Spanish. The response rate was approximately 25%, and the sample was repre-
sentative of the high school, which was 46% Hispanic, 43% African American, 8% White, and 2% other.
Participating students met once with project staff in small groups during free periods at school. They were given
instructions for completing the daily diaries and completed a paper and pencil version of the PBS and information on their
demographic background. The daily diaries were collected using an online survey format. Adolescents were individually sent
an e-mail link each day to access the daily diary. Students who did not have an individual e-mail account but who had Internet
access at home were given an account for the study duration. Students who did not have Internet access at home completed
their diaries at school, completing diaries for the weekend on Mondays. Computers were available both in the library and in
their homerooms. Students completing diaries at home and at school did not differ signicantly in their completion rates, nor
did they differ in sociodemographic background. Students were instructed to complete their diaries at the same time (in the
evenings, for those with Internet access at home, and the next morning for those without) every day for 14 days. Reminder
phone calls were made each evening if diaries were not completed, and students who missed more than four diaries during
the rst week were dropped from the study. Youth were given $25 honoraria for their study participation and prizes (candy
and snacks) at the completion of the rst week of the diaries.
Results
Descriptive results
Means, standard deviations, and correlations among the study variables (with all means except problem behavior
aggregated across the 14 study days) are shown in Table 1. As can be seen, on average, adolescents generally reported quite
positive relationships with parents, as averaged on the daily measure, and on average, they reported sometimes keeping
secrets. Ratings of mothers and fathers were very highly associated, but they were modeled separately to examine whether
the daily patterns of uctuation and the variables associated with those uctuations differed. Ratings of daily relationship
quality and daily amount of time spent together also were strongly associated. The remaining correlations among the vari-
ables in the model were in the expected directions and were weak to moderate in size, suggesting appropriately lowlevels of
colinearity for the HLM analyses.
Modeling daily variations in adolescents secrecy
We employed hierarchical linear modeling (HLM; Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002) using HLM 6 software (Raudenbush, Bryk, &
Congdon, 2008) to examine secrecy with parents. Two separate models, one for secrecy with mothers and one for secrecy
with fathers, were run. HLM takes into account the nested nature of our data (i.e., individuals over time, activities within
different domains), is exible about missing data, and allowed an examination of interactions between constructs at different
levels of the nested model structure. As mentioned above, participants typically completed at least 13 of the 14 daily diaries.
Missing data were relatively rare (less than 1% for each of the variables), and because of the repeated nature of the assess-
ments, the models had sufcient power to detect signicant effects.
J.G. Smetana et al. / Journal of Adolescence 33 (2010) 321331 325
The present study made use of a three-level model in which daily variations in secrecy with the parent (and interactions
with Levels 2 and 3) within each adolescent were modeled at Level 1, average descriptions of behavior within specic domains
(plus interactions with Level 3) were modeled at Level 2, and person-level variables were modeled at Level 3. Therefore, in the
models examining secrecy with each parent, daily variations in levels of teens relationship with that parent, amount of time
spent together, previous days secrecy, day of study, and a variable coding weekday versus weekend served as the Level 1
predictor variables. At Level 2, we modeled average levels of secrecy within specic domains of activities (multifaceted,
personal, school, and bad behavior), allowing us to examine how secrecy differs by the activity being considered. Finally, at
Level 3 (person-level), we modeled teens gender, age, family status, ethnicity, and problem behavior as predictor variables.
We examined ethnicity with three dummy-coded variables of African American versus all others, Latino versus all others, and
European American versus all others. We also examined the inuence of generational status for Latino participants as Level 3
predictors of secrecy. All variables were entered into the models uncentered.
Following Raudenbush and Bryk (2002), models were built sequentially by rst building a stable Level 1 model, introducing all
of the Level 1 predictor variables (adolescents relationship with their mother or father, amount of time spent together that day,
previous days secrecy, dayof study, andweekday versus weekend) andretainingonly those demonstrating signicant effects. The
Level 2predictor variables (domainof the activity: personal, peer, school, or badbehavior) andrelevant interactions betweenLevel
1and2variables werethenaddedtotheLevel 1model, andsignicant effects wereretained. Finally, Level 3predictors (gender, age,
family status, ethnicity, and problem behavior) and their corresponding interactions with Level 1 and 2 variables were tested,
creating the models described in Appendix and presented in the tables. As recommended by Raudenbush and Bryk (2002),
variables were retainedinthe nal models onlyif theydemonstratedsignicant associations. Inbothof the models testedhere, the
Level 3 variables of age, family status, ethnicity, gender, and generational status consistently failed to demonstrate signicant
associations withdaily secrecyafter controlling for the other variables in the model and thus were trimmed fromthe nal models.
Daily variations in concealment from mothers
The analyses for behavior toward mothers were run on the 103 participants, as ve students lived with fathers and did not
have a mother or female guardian. This resulted in 103 Level 3 observations, 412 Level 2 observations, and over 5300 Level 1
observations onwhich to build our models. A fully unconditional three-level model (with no predictors) suggested that 50% of
the variation in levels of secrecy was due to daily uctuations (Level 1), 1% was due to the domain of the activity (Level 2), and
50% was between-person variation (Level 3). The amount of variation in each of the three levels was signicant. The nal
three-level model predicting concealment from mothers is presented in Table 2.
Daily processes (Level 1)
When looking at daily uctuations in teens secrecy about activities to their mothers, there was a very small but statis-
tically signicant decline over the 14 days of the study in reported secrecy (G100 0.02). Interestingly, teens also concealed
less from their mothers on weekends than on weekdays (G200 0.10), but as might be expected (because of increased
opportunities to engage in the behaviors), there was a trend suggesting that students kept more secrets about their bad
behavior on weekends than on weekdays (G210 0.06). After controlling for other effects at Level 1, there was a large effect
indicating that adolescents who concealed their activities from mothers more on the previous day also kept more secrets
about their activities from their mothers on the current day (G300 0.19). There were no signicant effects for amount of
time spent together that day.
Table 2
Coefcients, standard errors (SE), and variance components for concealment from mothers.
Fixed effect Coefcient SE
Intercept G000 2.38*** 0.58
Level 1 daily variation interactions with Level 2 and 3
Daily variation G100 0.02** 0.01
Weekend G200 0.10** 0.04
Weekend category of bad behavior G210 0.06 0.04
Previous day concealment from mother G300 0.19*** 0.04
Level 2 domain interactions with Level 3
Personal activities G010 0.28*** 0.07
Personal activities problem behaviors G011 0.11** 0.04
Level 3 between Ss
Problem behaviors G001 0.30** 0.12
Average relationship with mother G002 0.34** 0.12
% Of variance explained
Level 1 20.05%
Level 2 97.37%
Level 3 39.08%
Note: p <0.10, *p <0.05, **p <0.01, ***p <0.001.
J.G. Smetana et al. / Journal of Adolescence 33 (2010) 321331 326
Domain effects (Level 2)
There was a Level 2 effect indicating that adolescents kept more secrets about personal than other activities
(G010 0.28).
Problem behavior (Level 3)
Not surprisingly, problem behavior also showed a general effect on concealment with mothers across all domains and all
days of the study (Level 3). Teens who initially reported higher levels of problem behavior kept more secrets from their
mothers about all types of activities (G001 0.30). Moderating the Level 2 domain effect, we also found that surprisingly,
teens who reported higher levels of problem behavior, assessed as an individual level variable, kept fewer secrets about
personal activities on a daily basis (G011 0.11).
In addition, teens who reported better daily relationships with their mothers, as averaged across the 14 days of the study
also reported keeping fewer secrets about their activities from their mothers (G002 0.34).
Daily variations in adolescents concealment from fathers
The analyses for behavior toward fathers were run on the 64 participants (17 African American, 29 Latino, 11 European
Americans and 7 others) who lived with fathers or male guardians. This provided a sample of 64 Level 3 observations, 256
Level 2 observations, and over 3300 daily observations on which to build the models. As noted previously, the Level 3
variables of age, family status, ethnicity, gender, and generational status did not demonstrate signicant associations with
daily secrecy to fathers and thus were dropped from the model.
The results also suggested that secrecy with fathers did not differ signicantly across domains of activities, leading to non-
signicant amounts of variance in Level 2 of the unconditional model, c
2
(161) 148.94, ns. Therefore, we ran a two-level
model with daily variations at Level 1 and person-level variables at Level 2. The fully unconditional model suggested that 47%
of the variation in levels of secrecy was due to daily uctuations (Level 1), and 53% was between-person variation (Level 2).
Daily relationships (Level 1)
As shown in Table 3, in terms of daily uctuations (Level 1), the results indicated that adolescents who concealed more
from fathers on the previous day kept more secrets from their fathers about their activities on the current day (G10 0.29).
Global relationships (Level 2)
Turning to the person-level effects (Level 2), there was a trend suggesting that teens who reported better relationships
with fathers, as averaged across the 14 study days, reported less secrecy with fathers (G04 0.22). Thus, unlike the model
for mothers, daily uctuations in relationships were not signicant, nor were there signicant effects for problem behavior.
Discussion
The present study extended previous research on adolescents concealment of information about their activities to parents
by using daily diaries to examine reported secrecy with parents in a diverse sample of urban, lower socioeconomic status
youth. The daily diaries, which were modeled using HLM, indicated that, as expected, there were substantial daily uctuations
(especially with mothers), as well as more stable individual differences associated with secrecy. In addition, the present
research went beyond the more global assessments used in previous research to examine secrecy regarding a diverse set of
activities, as dened within social domain theory (Smetana, 2006; Turiel, 2006). We found that youth kept more secrets from
mothers about personal than other activities, providing greater specicity to our understanding of secrecy in adolescents
everyday lives. In addition, we studied a diverse sample of lower income, American urban middle adolescents, a population
that has been understudied in the recent research on disclosure and secrecy in adolescentparent relationships. Finally, as
recommended by Crouter and Head (2002), we also examined secrecy separately with mothers and fathers.
Table 3
Coefcients, standard errors (SE), and variance components for concealment from fathers.
Fixed effect Coefcient SE
Intercept G00 2.02*** 0.47
Level 1 daily variation interactions with Level 2
Previous day concealment from father G10 0.29*** 0.07
Level 2 between Ss
Average relationship with father G01 0.22 0.11
% Of variance explained
Level 1 51.77%
Level 2 22.58%
Note: p <0.10, *p <0.05, **p <0.01, ***p <0.001.
J.G. Smetana et al. / Journal of Adolescence 33 (2010) 321331 327
Similar to previous research (Engels et al., 2006; Finkenauer et al., 2002; Smetana et al., 2006), we found that secrecy was
moderate in this sample; adolescents reported concealing a little from their parents (on average, 2 on a 5-point scale).
Although this may seem to suggest that overall rates of secrecy are low, it is important to note that these assessments were
obtained on a daily basis. Others (DePaulo & Kashy, 1998; Jensen, Arnett, Feldman, & Cauffman, 2004) have concluded that
deception and lying to parents about everyday activities are relatively common during adolescence, but Jensen et al.s (2004)
conclusions were based on the nding that teenagers reported lying about at least one of six activities (like friends, parties,
and dating) several times over the course of a year (i.e., perhaps a total of once or twice a month). In contrast, we found that
secrecy occurs on almost a daily basis, suggesting that it is a feature of everyday life in this sample of diverse, urban teens.
The main goal of the present study was to examine the extent to which ethnically diverse middle adolescents secrecy from
parents about their activities was associated with dynamic daily processes versus stable individual differences. We found large
uctuations insecrecyacross the 14 days of the study, accounting for about half of the total variance insecrecy withbothmothers
andfathers. The analysis of secrecywithmothers (but not fathers) showedsignicant dailyuctuations insecrecy. Contrarytoour
hypotheses and the results of qualitative research(Crockett et al., 2007), however, daily variations insecrecy were not associated
witheither uctuations inthe daily quality of teens relationships or the amount of time spent together that day. It must be noted
that the measure of daily time spent together was subjective. We made evening phone calls if teens hadnot completedtheir daily
dairies by mid-evening, so we obtained a great deal of anecdotal evidence about adolescents daily lives. Teens in the present
sample frequently were out of the house until late in the night, even on school nights and often with friends, and they did not
always sleep at home. Thus, althoughyouth reported that they spent a fair amount of time interacting with their parents, future
research must examine the actual frequency of time spent with parents each day. It is possible that signicant effects for time
spent together would have been obtained if this had been measured using concrete anchors.
Much research indicates that mothers have more responsibility for the day-to-day issues of parenting, are more often the
targets of adolescents sharing of information, and obtain information about teens activities in more direct ways than do
fathers (Crouter, Bumpus, Davis, & McHale, 2005; Crouter & Head, 2002; Smetana et al., 2006). Thus, it was surprising that
uctuations in daily relationship quality did not inuence secrecy, especially about personal activities. It would be interesting
to determine whether other variables, such as uctuations in parental control, are associated with daily variations in keeping
secrets from mothers. We did nd that keeping secrets from mothers was associated with the overall quality of their rela-
tionships with mothers, as averaged across the study days, and a similar trend was observed in keeping secrets from fathers.
We also found that greater secrecy on the previous day was associated with more secrets kept fromthat parent on the current
day. This was modeled as a daily uctuation, but it also suggests some stability in secrecy across study days.
As daily variations (except in association with secrets kept the previous day) did not inuence secrecy with fathers, these
ndings suggest that stable individual differences may be more important in secrecy with fathers than mothers. Also,
although the analyses included a much smaller number of fathers than mothers, which potentially inuenced the power to
detect person-level effects in the father model, we had a very large number of daily observations. Thus, that few daily
variations were observed in secrecy with fathers is not likely to be due to lack of power in this level of the model.
Much of the previous research on adolescents secrecy with parents has employed global measures that do not differ-
entiate among the topics that are concealed (Finkenauer et al., 2002; Finkenauer, Frijns, Engels, & Kerkhof, 2005). In the
present study, domain of the activity accounted for a small but signicant proportion of the variance in the model of secrecy
to mothers; adolescents kept more secrets from their mothers about personal activities than anything else. This contrasts
with previous research, which found that middle adolescents kept more secrets about peers (which were treated as multi-
faceted) than about personal activities (Smetana et al., 2006), but this previous study did not include assessments of secrecy
regarding bad behavior or prudential activities, where greater secrecy might be expected. Keeping personal activities secret
may be a way of establishing greater autonomy during adolescence, as others have claimed (Brown et al., 2007; Darling et al.,
2006; Engels et al. 2006; Finkenauer et al., 2002; Keijsers et al., 2008).
A et al. (2007) have proposed that secrecy includes both issues of privacy and issues of active deception and impression
management, and empirical research suggests that secrecy is strongly associated with but distinct from lying (Engels et al., 2006).
Previousresearchhasshownthat adolescentskeeppersonal activitiessecret becausetheyviewthemasprivatemattersor not harmful
(Smetana et al., 2009), suggesting that maintaining privacy is an important motivation for secrecy. Further research is needed to
examine howyouthconceptualize the different components of secrecyandwhether their notions differ by the domainof the activity.
As expected, and consistent with previous research (Engels et al., 2006), youth who initially reported more problem
behavior also reported keeping more secrets from mothers about all of their activities. Surprisingly, however, teens who
reported being more involved in problem behavior also reported keeping fewer secrets about their personal activities. This
may be a deliberate strategy for deecting attention from their problem behavior, but based on inhibition theory, Keijsers
et al. (2008) have proposed that keeping secrets is stressful. Thus, it is possible that details about personal activities leak out
because of the effort entailed in keeping other activities secret. These different explanations warrant attention in future
research, but the ndings support the utility of distinguishing among the types of activities that are kept secret.
We did not obtain any signicant ethnic differences in concealment to parents in this diverse urban sample. This may be
because the stresses involved in parenting in poor, urban samples outweigh the specic effects of ethnicity or ethnic vari-
ations in parental control (Bulcroft et al., 1996; Kelley et al., 1992; Way et al., 2008). Students for the present study were
recruited from an inner-city high school that was almost entirely (92%) minority, and thus, we were not able to recruit large
numbers of European American students into this study. It is possible that ethnic differences would have been more evident if
we had had a larger comparison group of European American participants.
J.G. Smetana et al. / Journal of Adolescence 33 (2010) 321331 328
Consistent with previous research (Finkenauer et al., 2002; Finkenauer et al., 2005; Smetana et al., 2006), we did not
obtain signicant gender differences in overall levels of secrecy here. We also did not replicate Smetana et al.s (2006) nding
that boys kept more secrets about their personal activities from mothers than did girls, perhaps because our sample differed
(both in ethnic and socioeconomic status composition) fromthe previous study. In contrast, qualitative studies have indicated
that poor, urban boys of different ethnicities view it as normal not to disclose to parents about their personal activities
(Crockett et al., 2007; Jeffries, 2004). As previous research has shown that girls consistently disclose more to parents than do
boys (Smetana et al., 2006, 2009; Soenens et al., 2006; Youniss & Smollar, 1985), future research should explore why sex
differences are evident in disclosure but not in secrecy, particularly as boys have been found to lie more than girls (DePaulo &
Kashy, 1998; Jensen et al., 2004). This lack of sex differences also is consistent with the notion that disclosure and secrecy are
not mere opposites but may function in different ways.
Study limitations and conclusions
Reecting the sociodemographic characteristics of the study population, not all of the youth studied here lived in two-
parent homes (or indeed, in a few cases, with either of their birth parents). As others have found (Way & Stauber, 1996), the
initial questionnaires indicated that nearly all teens knewor had some contact with their fathers or a substitute father gure,
but teens only completed daily diaries if they were living with a father gure. Thus, we obtained fewer diaries describing daily
relationships with fathers than mothers. Reecting the ecological context (McLoyd, 1998b), this also varied by ethnicity, with
fewer African American than other teens living with a father gure. Therefore, the ndings for fathers need to be replicated in
further research with larger samples. The results of the present study suggested somewhat similar patterns in the variables
predicting secrecy with mothers and fathers, although there was more evidence of daily uctuations in secrecy with mothers
than fathers. This also needs to be replicated in further research with larger samples.
Despite concerns about a digital divide, particularly along socioeconomic status and ethnic and racial lines in use and
access to the Internet, using online daily diaries was very effective in recruiting and retaining a diverse sample of poor, urban
students. However, while our sample appeared to be representative of the larger school district from which it was drawn,
previous research has indicated that well-functioning families are over-represented in family research, especially when active
consent procedures are used (Weinberger, Tublin, Ford, & Feldman, 1990). Thus, although participation rates were high, it is
possible that there was some self-selection in our sample, especially given the intensive nature of study participation. In
addition, although many commentators have called for more research examining normative developmental processes in
ethnic minority youth (Garcia Coll et al., 1996; McLoyd, 1998a), future research must examine whether the present results
generalize beyond the poor, urban, American, largely ethnic minority sample studied here.
Because we could determine whether teens had completed their diaries each day and could contact those who had not, we
had a very high completion rate. Consistent with recent surveys showing recent Internet use is increasing among minorities,
and particularly among teens (PewInternet Survey, 2004), most youth in our study had access to the Internet, and not having
access to the Internet (or an e-mail account) at home did not inuence teens ability to complete the diaries. In addition, we
did not nd signicant sociodemographic differences betweenyouth who lled out diaries at home and at school. We did nd
a statistically signicant decline over the 14 study days in concealment with parents suggesting a method artifact, but the
effects were very small. In addition, to increase the likelihood that the diary items were relevant to participants daily lives,
our bad behavior items were generally worded. It would have been useful to know more about the behaviors that teens
referenced in completing their diaries.
Although our assessment of daily relationship quality was based on only four items, it should be noted that single item
measures of relationship quality are common in social-psychological daily diary studies (Birnbaum et al., 2006), and our
measure was reliable in the different ethnic groups. The present study focused on adolescents perceptions of their rela-
tionships with parents, but much research has shown that adolescents and parents reports of relationship quality are only
moderately correlated. Thus, it would be interesting to examine daily uctuations in adolescents ratings of secrecy with
parents as a function of parent-reported relationship quality, particularly as other research has shown that analyses including
parents perceptions yield somewhat different ndings (Finkenauer et al., 2005).
Daily diary methods have a great deal of ecological validity and capture life as it is lived (Bolger et al., 2003), providing
insight into the daily lives of teens in different ecological niches. The results of the present study provide a rich and detailed
picture of secrecy with parents in a diverse sample of lower income youth. We found that adolescents secrecy with parents
can be characterized in terms of daily uctuations and individual differences in problem behavior and the quality of rela-
tionships with parents. As concealment can range from simple acts of omission, such as leaving out information, to more
active attempts to deceive, future research should examine the strategies that poor urban teens of diverse ethnicities use to
manage information about their activities in daily life.
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank the Rochester School District (and especially Stephen LaMorte) and the participating adolescents for
their cooperationwith this research. We are also grateful to our undergraduate research assistants for their help. This research
was supported by National Science Foundation Grant #0517941 to the rst author.
J.G. Smetana et al. / Journal of Adolescence 33 (2010) 321331 329
Appendix.
Concealment from mothers
Level 1 model
Concealment from mother p0 p1Day p2Weekend p3Previous day concealment from mother e
Level 2 model
p0 b00 b01Personal r0
p1 b10
p2 b20 b21Bad behavior
p3 b30
Level 3 model
b00 g000 g001White g002African American g003Hispanic g004Problem behaviors
g005Overall relationship with mother m00
b01 g010 g011White g012African American g013Hispanic g014Problem behaviors
10 g100
20 g200
b21 g210
b30 g300
Concealment from fathers
Level 1 model
Concealment from father b0 b1Previous day concealment from father r
Level 2 model
b0 g000 g01White g02African American g03Hispanic g04Overall relationship with father m0
b1 g10
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