1-014 - Privacy and Parenting During Late Childhood and Adolescence: Exploring Links Among Cognitions and Behaviors

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Although the desire for privacy emerges early in childhood, defining privacy boundaries continues to be an issue during adolescence (Wolfe & Laufer, 1974), with important implications for self-definition, regulation, and adjustment (Pedersen, 1997). However, the adjustment during adolescence does not always go well. Adolescents’ attempts to gain autonomy and negotiate privacy boundaries within the family often clash with parents’ efforts to regulate adolescents and keep them safe (Hawk et al., 2013; Hawk, Keijsers, Hale, & Meeus, 2009; Trost & Tilton-Weaver, 2012). With little documentation about how these clashes occur or what their consequences are, this symposium explores the most direct indicator of boundary perturbation—parents’ privacy invasions. The studies in this symposium used cross-sectional data from children and parents, collected in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Canada from children aged 9 to 16 years. Using the multi-informant data to conduct variable- and pattern-centered approaches, we considered different types of invasions (covert versus overt), children's cognitions about privacy (i.e., their abilities to distinguish between privacy and secrecy), and a variety of parent and child behaviors and indicators of adjustment. The results indicate that difficulties establishing privacy boundaries are related to problematic behaviors and cognitions of both parents and children. The results confirm that understandings of privacy and the ability to regulate privacy boundaries have important links to individuation and autonomy development. These studies provide valuable information about the tensions between adolescent privacy and parental regulation.

Sub Unit

• Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Chair

• Lauree C. Tilton-Weaver, Örebro University

Discussant

• Nancy Darling, Oberlin College

Individual Presentations

• Same Game, Different Name? Examining Latent Class Profiles of Parents' Privacy Invasions and Psychological Control. - Presenting Author: Lauree C. Tilton-Weaver, Örebro University

• Adolescents’ Distinctions Between Privacy and Secrecy: Age Differences and Psychosocial Correlates - Presenting Author: Skyler T. Hawk, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

• When Do Parents Invade Adolescents' Privacy? Exploring the Roles of Adolescent Behaviors, Parent Adjustment and Cognitions - Presenting Author: Sheila Kathleen Marshall, Univ of British Columbia; Lauree C. Tilton-Weaver, Örebro University