The Impact of Parents “Friending” Their Young Adult Child on Facebook on Perceptions of Parental Privacy Invasions and Parent-Child Relationship Quality

Abstract

This study examined whether a parent ''friending'' his/her child on Facebook.com influenced the parent-child relationship and perceptions of parental privacy invasions. One hundred and eighteen parent-young adult child dyads were randomly assigned to an experimental group where the parent was asked to create a Facebook account, ''friend'' his/her child, and use the account over 2 months or a control group where the parent did not have a Facebook account. Having a parent on Facebook did not result in perceptions of greater privacy invasions, but was associated with decreased conflict in the parent-child relationship. When the parent and child had a more conflicted relationship prior to the parent joining Facebook, the parent's presence on Facebook also enhanced the child's closeness with the parent.

Family functioning and information and communication technologies: How do they relate? A literature review

“…sustain the digital culture (Bacigalupe & Lambe, 2011;Stafford & Hillyer, 2012), have progressively become part of our everyday lives (Aponte, 2009;Bacigalupe & Lambe, 2011;Blinn-Pike, 2009;Correa, Hinsley, & Zúñiga, 2010;Igartua & Moral, 2012;Lanigan, 2009;Stern & Messer, 2009;Stafford & Hillyer, 2012;Zhong, 2013). About 20 years ago families were using face-to-face (FtF) was the central mode of communication (Stafford & Hillyer, 2012), besides the use of television, video home system and books, the meaning of social network was consistent with families' Christmas card list' (Coyne, Padilla-Walker, & Howard, 2013).…”

Growing Up Wired: Social Networking Sites and Adolescent Psychosocial Development

“…As adolescents’ preoccupation with SNSs potentially take priority over and interfere with everyday family activities, SNS use among adolescents has been linked with greater parent-youth conflict (Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, 2008; Mesch, 2006) and less time with parents (Lee, 2009). Although some parents are unaware of what their teens are postings online, other parents utilize SNSs to maintain greater contact with their teens, requiring them to be connected to them through their SNS of choice (Kanter, Afifi, & Robbins, 2012). It is worth noting that changes in the parent-child relationship associated with SNSs are likely to influence peer relations and vice versa.…”

Facebook as a Recruitment Tool for Adolescent Health Research: A Systematic Review

“…This was the only study reviewed which addressed the ethical dilemmas of recruiting younger adolescents by Facebook, including the need for parental consent, developing trust from both Research is showing an increasing trend of parents also using Facebook. [42][43][44] Parents were found to be motivated to use Facebook initially to monitor their children, but also became attracted to connecting with their own friends. 42 Therefore, there is the potential to use with an age range of 13 to 25 years for health research.…”