Final answer:
Confidentiality in group settings is less assured with larger group sizes as individuals might not know each other well enough to maintain trust, making the enforcement of confidentiality challenging compared to smaller groups where trust and direct oversight can be more effectively sustained.
Step-by-step explanation:
Confidentiality in group settings is often compromised due to the inherent nature of larger groups where individuals may not have existing trust or interpersonal relationships. With a rise in the number of participants, the ability for each member to monitor and hold others accountable diminishes, creating an environment where personal, financial, and medical information shared within the group may not be securely protected.
In smaller groups, monitoring and enforcement are more manageable due to the close-knit nature and personal relationships that can foster trust and a higher level of individual accountability. Here, informal mechanisms of maintaining confidentiality can be more effective due to the social trust and direct oversight. However, in large groups, the absence of these same conditions makes it challenging to ensure that shared information remains private.
Confidentiality agreements and understanding of agency, state, and federal confidentiality rules are essential in structured settings, but they can be difficult to fully implement and enforce in practice when group sizes grow, as the sense of anonymity and reduced accountability in large groups can lead to irresponsibility and free-riding behavior.