Chapter 11 Communication in Families

Communication privacy management theory explains how people control and manage the risks associated with self-disclosure about private information. The theory focuses on three main elements that illustrate how people set up boundaries surrounding personal and sensitive information: privacy ownership, privacy control, and privacy turbulence. First, we think that our private information is our own, and we get to decide with whom that information is shared. When we grant other people access to our private information, they become authorized co-owners of that information. Second, the theory suggests that we want to have control over our private information. By creating privacy rules, such as who is allowed to co-own our private information, what aspects of the information that co-owners are allowed to share with others, and how the information is framed, people are better able to control their private information. Third, the theory argues that privacy turbulence occurs when there is a privacy breakdown (e.g., a secret got out) that forces co-owners of information to re-negotiate boundary management. Bute and Brann (2015) used the framework of communication privacy management theory to examine how married couples jointly manage miscarriage information, and how they negotiate privacy rules about disclosing their loss to their social network members. Pederson and McLaren (2016) explored the process by which people who had experienced a hurtful event managed that information with personal network members. By establishing rules for sharing information, managing privacy boundaries, and navigating privacy turbulence, the theory illustrates the ways in which people protect and manage private information.

References and other suggested readings:

Bute, J. J., & Brann, M. (2015). Co-ownership of private information in the miscarriage context. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 43(1), 23-43. https://doi.org/10.1080/00909882.2014.982686

Pederson, J. R., & McLaren, R. M. (2015). Managing information following hurtful experiences: How personal network members negotiate private information. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 33(7), 961-983. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407515612242

Petronio, S. (1991). Communication boundary management: A theoretical model of managing disclosure of private information between marital couples. Communication Theory, 1(4), 311-355. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.1991.tb00023.x

Petronio, S. (2002). Boundaries of privacy: Dialectics of disclosure. State University of New York Press.

Petronio, S. (2013). Brief status report on communication privacy management theory. Journal of Family Communication, 13(1), 6-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/15267431.2013.743426

Petronio, S., & Durham, W. T. (2015). Communication privacy management theory: Significance for interpersonal communication. In D. O. Braithwaite & P. Schrodt (Eds.), Engaging theories in interpersonal communication: Multiple perspectives (pp. 335-347). Sage.

Petronio, S., & Reierson, J. (2009). Regulating the privacy of confidentiality: Grasping the complexities through communication privacy management theory. In T. A. Afifi & W. A. Afifi (Eds.), Uncertainty, information management, and disclosure decisions: Theories and Applications (pp. 365-383). Routledge.