The present investigation empirically examined if the negative association between self-concealment and subjective well-being is spurious because it results from the associations of both variables with their common causes neuroticism and extraversion. We concluded from applying structural equation modeling to the data obtained from two independent student samples that neuroticism, but not extraversion, explains part of the negative association between self-concealment and subjective well-being. More than 60% of the negative association between self-concealment and subjective well-being could not be explained by Neuroticism. Implications of our findings for both research and clinical therapy are discussed.
Self-concealment (SC; Larson & Chastain, 1990) refers to the personality characteristic to conceal information from others, as opposed to regarding secrecy as a function of mainly situational determinants. The concept of SC is derived from the trait component of inhibition as studied by Pennebaker (1989) and is defined as the “predisposition to actively conceal from others personal information that one perceives as distressing or negative” (Larson & Chastain, 1990, p. 440). Self-concealed personal information is a subset of private personal information, consciously accessible to the individual and actively kept from the awareness of others. It is negative in valence and, if disclosed at all, usually only confided to a small number of persons because of its highly intimate content (Larson & Chastain, 1990). Since its introduction by Larson and Chastain (1990) the concept of SC has been commonly applied, predominantly in clinical psychological studies on anxiety and depressive symptoms as will be discussed below.
1.1. Self-concealment as a predictor of subjective well-being
Several studies have shown that SC is positively associated with various measures of psychological distress such as anxiety (e.g., Pennebaker et al., 1990 and Ritz and Dahme, 1996), depression (e.g., Kelly & Achter, 1995), maladjustment (e.g., Kawamura & Frost, 2004), and overall psychological distress (e.g., Cramer, 1999). Further, recently Wismeijer, van Assen, Sijtsma, and Vingerhoets (submitted for publication) found SC to be negatively related with self-reported life satisfaction, psychological well-being, health status, and positively with fatigue.
