New mothers' management of complaints in computer-mediated communication channels

Abstract

This study examines new mothers’ complaining behaviors in computer-mediated communication (CMC) channels and investigates mothers’ privacy management when self-disclose family issues online. This study includes data collected through face-to-face in-depth interviews and interview surveys with new mothers (i.e., who had at least one child younger than 3 years old at the time), which were analyzed through constant comparative methods and descriptive statistics. In total, 35 participants were recruited for this study, including 16 American mothers and 19 Chinese mothers who live in the US. The study examines new mothers’ complaining behaviors in CMC channels through two steps. First, I explore the facilitators and barriers that influence new mothers’ choices when selecting the appropriate CMC channel(s) to complain about motherhood-related challenges and problems. Then I categorize these facilitators and barriers into four areas of consideration (i.e., emotion management, impression management, information control, and problem-solving) that mothers may think of when balancing the benefits and risks of using any CMC channel to express their negative feelings. Based on the Communication Privacy Management theory, I also investigate mothers’ self-disclosure behaviors in different channels. From level 1 (vague) to level 5 (full of details), mothers disclosed sensitive and private family issues with varying levels when complaining in different channels. The four areas of consideration can be applied again to explain their choices. I further identify four underlying factors across these areas of consideration that affect new mothers’ online complaining behavior: mothers’ expected social support types, the nature of the complaining subject, online privacy literacy, and cultural differences. Finally, I propose an integrated model of negative self-disclosure via CMC which demonstrates all the factors that potentially impact people’s channel selection and message-framing processes.