[3] Jourard's[4][5] work on self-disclosure and Pennebaker's research on the health benefits of disclosing traumatic events and secrets set the stage for the conceptualization and measurement of self-concealment.
In a later line of research, Pennebaker[6][7] and his colleagues examined the confiding-illness relation or the inhibition-disease link and found that not expressing thoughts and feelings about traumatic events is associated with long-term health effects.
[21] Theoretical models offered to explain the consistent finding of negative health effects for self-concealment include: Kelly offers a comprehensive review of several explanatory models and the evidence supporting each of them, concluding that a genetic component shared by high self-concealers might make them both more prone to self-conceal and more vulnerable to physical and psychological problems.
[27] Research studies have focused on the relation of self-concealment to attachment orientations,[28][29][30] help seeking and attitudes toward counseling,[31][32][33] desire for greater (physical) interpersonal distance,[30] stigma,[34][35] distress disclosure,[9] lying behavior and authenticity,[36][37][38] and psychotherapy process.
The authors conceptualize self-concealment as a "complex trait-like motivational construct where high levels of SC motivation energize a range of goal-directed behaviors (e.g., keeping secrets, behavioral avoidance, lying) and dysfunctional strategies for the regulation of emotions (e.g., expressive suppression) which serve to conceal negative or distressing personal information.