title: Disclosing Mental Illness Information to a Friend: Exploring How the Disclosure Decision-Making Model Informs Strategy Selection.
abstract: Within the context of mental illness disclosure between friends, this study tested the disclosure decision-making model (DD-MM; Greene, 2009) to comprehensively investigate factors that predict disclosure enactment strategies. The DD-MM describes how individuals determine whether they will reveal or conceal non-visible health information. Processes of revealing, called disclosures, take various forms including preparation and rehearsal, directness, third-party disclosure, incremental disclosures, entrapment, and indirect mediums (Afifi & Steuber, 2009). We explore the disclosure decision-making process to understand how college students select to disclose their mental illness information with a friend. Participants were 144 students at a Midwestern university who had disclosed their mental illness information to a friend. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that college students choose strategies based on their evaluation of information assessment and closeness, and that for some strategies, efficacy mediates the relationship between information assessment and strategy. This manuscript discusses implications of findings and suggests direction for future research.
authors.affiliation: a Brian Lamb School of Communication , Purdue University.
authors.forename: Maria K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Venetis
authors.affiliation: a Brian Lamb School of Communication , Purdue University.
authors.forename: Skye
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chernichky-Karcher
authors.affiliation: b Communication Studies , Indiana University Southeast.
authors.forename: Patricia E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Gettings
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003657:Decision Making; D030881:Disclosure; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends / Q000523:psychology*; D058015:Health Communication; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders; D011582:Psychological Theory; D057545:Social Stigma; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult