Furthermore, these studies demonstrate that children’s ability to distinguish between different types of secrets (e.g., Anagnostaki, Wright, & Bourchier-Sutton, 2012 Watson & Valtin, 1997a b) and reasons for keeping secrets ( Last & Aharoni-Etzioni, 1995) becomes more sophisticated with age. Overall, these studies suggest that children’s understanding of secrets begins to develop at age three (e.g., Bok, 1983 Meares & Orlay, 1988) and, with age, children are more likely to say they would keep a secret for a peer ( Piaget, 1932 Watson & Valtin, 1997b). The most common method used to investigate children’s concept of secrets is by sharing vignettes about various secrets and asking questions that measure the children’s understanding of the vignette and judgment of its characters’ behavior. The extant literature on children and secrecy can be divided into two broad categories: research that examines children’s understanding of the concept of secrecy and research that examines children’s actual secret-keeping behavior. For example, maternal parenting style has been shown to predict children’s disclosure of school events ( Almas, Grusec, & Tackett, 2011). Namely, that children form their first relationship with their parent(s), which serves as a model for children’s behavior and later relationships. The current study examined three questions about the development of children’s secret-keeping for a parent: (1) Does secret-keeping increase with age? (2) Are children able to keep secrets when asked open-ended questions and direct questions about the secret? and (3) What social and cognitive factors influence children’s ability to keep a secret? Secret-keeping was examined in the context of the parent-child relationship because of the unique characteristics of this relationship. This may be very demanding for pre-school and early school-aged children for whom these skills are developing. Third, keeping a secret requires keeping multiple pieces of information in mind at one time and ensuring one behaves in accordance with these rules. Second, not all secrets are safe to keep and understanding the nuances between “good” and “bad” secrets may be difficult for younger children who have limited experiences with secrets. For example, early school-aged children may not realize how disclosing a secret can negatively affect a friendship. First, keeping – or disclosing – secrets can have significant consequences for relationships that may be difficult for children to predict. Secret keeping may be a tremendous challenge for children for a number of reasons. To keep a secret, one must understand that some information can be disclosed freely and publicly and other information must be set aside and not shared with anyone but the very person for whom the secret is kept. Secrecy involves creating boundaries between information that one possesses and information that another possesses (e.g., Meares & Orlay, 1988 Piaget, 1959).
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