YOUNG ADULT SIBLING GROUPS AND DISCLOSURE: IMPLICATIONS OF SHARING PRIVATE INFORMATION
Open Access
- Author:
- Deterding, Audrey L
- Graduate Program:
- Communication Arts and Sciences
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- June 25, 2007
- Committee Members:
- Michelle E Day, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Jon F Nussbaum, Committee Member
Dennis Stephen Gouran, Committee Member
Edgar Paul Yoder, Committee Member - Keywords:
- sibling communication
secrets
disclosure
family communication - Abstract:
- Research indicates that young adults value their relationship with their siblings (Milevsky, 2005; Pulakos, 1989), yet little is known about how siblings communicatively manage these relationships. As young adults struggle for autonomy from family, they actively manage their private information by selectively sharing or withholding information from family members (Petronio, 2002); however, research involving the disclosure of private information is largely limited to dyads such as romantic partners or friends (e.g. Derlega et al., 1994). There is no systematic research relating the management of private information in sibling relationships. Since young adults describe siblings as important sources of support and influence (Tucker, McHale, & Crouter, 2001), this deficiency is unfortunate. The aim of the descriptive research reported herein was to illuminate how young adults manage private information in interactions with their siblings. In the first part, a two-phase study, 104 young adult participants completed a web-based questionnaire concerning what siblings share and withhold from one another and the functions sharing and withholding serve. In the second phase, 19 young adults participated in focus group interviews to provide additional findings for Research Questions One and Two from the first phase of the study and to answer Research Question Three by identifying criteria for revealing private information to siblings. The results revealed that, in general, young adult siblings tend to share a good deal of private information with each other, with some tendency to share more intimate information such as sexual relationships with siblings of the same gender. The data suggested that siblings are important providers of social and family support to one another. They are rather open with their disclosures in general even though they share more private information with siblings of the same gender. The primary function of sharing private information with siblings appears to be relational maintenance, which becomes more prominent in the relationship as they move away from the parental home. Focus group participants also indicated that protection of self or sibling influences choosing to whether share or withhold private information. The results revealed several criteria for the disclosure of private information to siblings—fixed criteria (such as criteria that focused on receiver characteristics) and situational criteria (such as criteria specific to the message). According to this study, fixed criteria for revealing private information to a sibling includes if the sibling is (1) closeness in age, (2) emotional closeness, (3) complementary personality, and (4) unlikelihood of disclosing private information to parents. Criteria specific to such disclosures were (1) life experience, (2) interest in topic, and (3) physical location. Additionally, private information was more likely revealed to siblings who would “get” or “identify with” the content of the private information.