An investigation on the effects of parent friending on self-disclosure, privacy settings, editing behavior and topic avoidance on Facebook

M.A. University of Hawaii at Manoa 2011.Includes bibliographical references.Social networking sites (SNSs) have changed the way we communicate and keep in touch. While there is ongoing and existing research on SNSs, few have looked at the effects of having a parent in one's friend network. The current study looks to further explore the effects that parent friending on Facebook has on user's self-disclosure and impression management on their profile. It was hypothesized that user's who have a parent on Facebook would demonstrate a greater amount of editing behaviors, would be more likely use the privacy settings, and would decrease or withhold information. This study also posed several research questions regarding user's information sharing on Facebook. Two hundred and eleven participants completed an online survey examining Facebook usage, self-disclosure, parent presence in their friend network, and topic avoidance. Results did not support the proposed hypotheses but provided interesting insights into the research questions. Implications and directions for future research are discussed