Early Adult Children's Openness to Parents When Experiencing Academic Pressure in College

Abstract

As social beings, early adulthood individuals facing academic stress in higher education, manifested as heavy course loads, piled-up assignments, and the threat of academic (burnout) require interaction within the family. This study was conducted to deeply understand how early adulthood individuals navigate self-disclosure toward their parents when experiencing academic stress. It aims to describe and analyze the decision-making process of self-disclosure among early adulthood individuals toward their parents when facing academic stress in higher education, and to understand how perceptions of family communication patterns influence their choice to be open or closed. This study is guided by the Social Penetration Theory by Altman and Taylor, which provides a framework to understand the development of interpersonal relationship intimacy through information exchange. The methodology used is qualitative with a descriptive approach to gain a profound understanding of individuals' subjective experiences, particularly in the context of family communication crises in the city of Surabaya. Data collection was carried out through in-depth interviews with eleven (11) active college student informants who became the research subjects. The study finds that the self-disclosure decision-making process of early adulthood individuals regarding academic stress is heavily determined by the foundation of communication experiences established within the family. Informants with democratic communication patterns tend to feel secure in opening up because they are accustomed to a space without judgment. Conversely, informants with authoritarian parents exhibit a tendency toward emotional withdrawal (de-penetration) as a form of self-protection. Consequently, students' self-disclosure becomes restricted, they tend to be selective by only sharing neutral or administrative academic information while consciously concealing negative emotional dimensions such as stress, exhaustion, and crying. The depth of the shared information heavily depends on the child's level of trust in their parents' responses, highlighting that their primary goal in sharing is actually to seek emotional validation, rather than mere practical solutions.