Understanding Students with Special Needs Self-disclosure in Internet Chat Rooms

Abstract

This book chapter proposes a research agenda for determining, describing, and depicting special needs students’ self-disclosure behaviors via the Internet in regards to the Communication Privacy Management Theory (formerly known as the Communication Boundary Management Theory). Internet, computer-mediated communication, chat rooms, self-disclosure, and the Privacy Management Theory are all identified and summarized. The theory is presented for its usefulness and its significance to studying self-disclosure in Internet chat rooms among individuals with disabilities. In addition, future research directions using each theory to study individuals with special needs’ self-disclosure in Internet chat rooms are presented. Research presented in this chapter should be able to assist parents, teachers, and others who interact with individuals with disabilities, with an overview of the impact of self-disclosure on the Internet.