Parental Privacy Invasion, Family Communication Patterns, and Perceived Ownership of Private Information

Communication privacy management (CPM) theory guides the current study of parents’ self-reported privacy invasion behaviors. Participants (N = 113) completed measures of their general privacy invasion behaviors, their perceptions of ownership, and their family communication patterns. Results indicate that parents’ privacy invasion behaviors are positively associated with perceived ownership of emerging adults’ private information and conformity orientation. Moreover, perceived ownership mediated the association between conformity orientation and privacy invasion. Conversation orientation, however, was not significantly associated with privacy invasion. The current study supports and extends CPM.