This article was downloaded by: [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign]On: 08 August 2013, At: 22:13Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UKJournal of Divorce & RemarriagePublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wjdr20Adolescents' Physiological Reactionsto Their Parents' Negative DisclosuresAbout the Other Parent in Divorced andNondivorced FamiliesTamara D. Afifi a , Walid A. Afifi a & Amanda Coho ba Department of Communication, University of California, SantaBarbara, Santa Barbara, California, USAb Department of Communication Arts and Sciences, PennsylvaniaState University, State College, Pennsylvania, USAPublished online: 29 Oct 2009.To cite this article: Tamara D. Afifi , Walid A. Afifi & Amanda Coho (2009) Adolescents' PhysiologicalReactions to Their Parents' Negative Disclosures About the Other Parent in Divorced and NondivorcedFamilies, Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 50:8, 517-540, DOI: 10.1080/10502550902970496To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10502550902970496PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLETaylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as tothe accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinionsand views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Contentshould not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sourcesof information. 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Terms &Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions517Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 50:517–540, 2009Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1050-2556 print/1540-4811 onlineDOI: 10.1080/10502550902970496WJDR1050-25561540-4811Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, Vol. 50, No. 8, Sep 2009: pp. 0–0Journal of Divorce & RemarriageAdolescents’ Physiological Reactions to Their Parents’ Negative Disclosures About the Other Parent in Divorced and Nondivorced FamiliesDisclosure and Physiological ArousalT. D. A fifi et al.TAMARA D. AFIFI and WALID A. AFIFIDepartment of Communication, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, USAAMANDA COHODepartment of Communication Arts and Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania, USAThe purpose of this study was to determine how adolescents indivorced and nondivorced families respond psychologically andphysiologically to their parents’ negative disclosures when talkingabout their parents’ relationship. The study also investigated howparents respond to their own disclosures about their relationshipwith the other parent. In general, the results illustrate the importantrole that adolescents’ feelings of being caught can contribute totheir well-being. The findings also supported the hypothesis that thevalence of parental disclosures was a more important considerationthan its frequency in the understanding of adolescents’ reactionsto their parents’ disclosures, especially for adolescents fromdivorced families. Disclosure valence was also associated withparental anxiety, such that disclosure negativity predicted eleva-tions in parents’ anxiety during the discussion. Ultimately, childrenfrom divorced families who already felt caught between their par-ents and whose parents tended to disclose negative informationabout the other parent to them were more likely than other adoles-cents to report feeling anxious during that conversation. Theresults for changes in physiological arousal were not significantand were not consistent with the results for self-reported anxiety.Address correspondence to Tamara D. Afifi, Department of Communication, EllisonHall, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4020, USA.E-mail: [email protected] by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 22:13 08 August 2013518 T. D. Afifi et al.KEYWORDS divorce disclosures, arousal, anxiety, parent–childrelationships, communicationWhen parents reveal negative information about the other parent or theirstrained marriage to their children, it can have a deleterious impact on chil-dren’s physical and mental health (e.g., Koerner, Wallace, Lehman, & Raymond,2002). The likelihood of such disclosures is heightened in cases of divorce,making children in these situations especially vulnerable. Unfortunately, weknow very little about the specific approaches that parents use when dis-cussing their relationship with the other parent to their child. Moreover,what we know about the effects of these discussions is entirely basedon self-reports (e.g., Afifi, Coho, & McManus, in press; Koerner et al., 2002;Lehman & Koerner, 2002). Coding of the conversation’s content and simul-taneous assessment of the adolescents’ physiological responses, in the formof skin conductance levels (SCL), would shed light on the nature of theconversation and its impact on adolescents’ physical response. This investi-gation hopes to remedy this gap by observing parent–adolescent interac-tions about the parents’ relationship, coding the parent’s disclosures, andexamining how adolescents in divorced and nondivorced families respondpsychologically and physiologically to these disclosures.The primary focus of this study, then, is to better understand the disclo-sures that parents use during such conversations and assess their impact onadolescents’ anxiety levels. However, one also wonders how parents’ negativedisclosures about one another might impact the parents themselves. Generalmodels of disclosure, including the