Privacy concerns can stress you out: Investigating the reciprocal relationship between mobile social media privacy concerns and perceived stress

Author(s)
Anja Stevic, Desiree Schmuck, Anna Koemets, Melanie Hirsch, Kathrin Karsay, Marina Frederike Thomas, Jörg Matthes
Abstract

Mobile social media have become a widespread means to participate in everyday social and professional life. These platforms encourage the disclosure and exchange of personal information, which comes with privacy risks. While past scholarship has listed various predictors and consequences of online privacy concerns, there has been to date no empirical investigation of a conceivable relationship with perceived stress. Using a longitudinal panel study, we examined the reciprocal relationship between mobile social media privacy concerns and perceived stress. Results supported the hypothesis that mobile social media privacy concerns at T1 are associated with higher perceived stress at T2. However, we found no evidence for the reverse association, that is, perceived stress at T1 was not related to mobile social media privacy concerns at T2. The findings are discussed based on two models - the "Antecedents privacy concerns outcomes"model and the "Privacy calculus"model.

Organisation(s)
Department of Communication
External organisation(s)
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Journal
Communications - The European Journal of Communication Research
Volume
47
Pages
327-349
No. of pages
23
ISSN
0341-2059
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1515/commun-2020-0037
Publication date
2021
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
508007 Communication science
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Communication, Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
Portal url
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/privacy-concerns-can-stress-you-out-investigating-the-reciprocal-relationship-between-mobile-social-media-privacy-concerns-and-perceived-stress(ebbb8c74-4a03-4d4e-a997-445d8b37ee3e).html