Journal of Social and Personal Relationships · 2003 · 261 citations · 49 references
Information SecuritySocial InfluenceCommunicationSocial SciencesBoundary SeparationSocial MediaFamily InteractionCommunication StrategyFamily RelationshipsPrivacy ManagementPrivacy FrameworkStrategic CommunicationCommunication EffectsCommunication PatternsCommunication StudyPrivacy IssueData PrivacyTrustSocial InteractionPrivacy ConcernPrivacyEnmeshed Communication BoundariesHuman CommunicationInterpersonal CommunicationSociologyInterpersonal RelationshipsBoundary TurbulenceFamily PsychologyRelational CommunicationArtsData Privacy Law
The study applies Communication Privacy Management theory to investigate how communication patterns influence triangulation in stepfamilies. Analysis of 90 interviews shows that enmeshed communication boundaries create a sense of being caught for both children and parents, generating loyalty–disloyalty and revealment–concealment tensions that disrupt established rules, and stepfamilies respond by coordinating or separating boundaries.
This study used a Communication Privacy Management perspective to examine the communication patterns that foster and ameliorate triangulation in stepfamilies. The qualitative analysis of 90 in-depth interviews with stepchildren, stepparents, and parents from 30 stepfamilies revealed that enmeshed communication boundaries contributed to children feeling caught between their custodial and noncustodial parents and parents and/or stepparents feeling caught between the children in the stepfamily. The dialectical tensions of loyalty–disloyalty and revealment–concealment that comprised stepfamily members’ feelings of being caught produced turbulence in their previously established communication rules. The stepfamilies responded to these tensions with boundary coordination or boundary separation. The ways the boundaries became enmeshed and the management attempts used to coordinate new boundary rules are outlined.
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