Communicating grief and loss online: Evaluating person-centered support messages

This single-class activity expands current literature on person-centered messages by providing attention to message quality in mediated contexts. Students begin the activity by reviewing a hypothetical scenario in which a friend has posted about a family death loss on social media. After reviewing this scenario, students then create sample supportive messages that they could share with a grieving friend. Students are also asked to apply their knowledge about person-centered messages to evaluate other fictional support messages. Students who participate in this activity will be provided with additional skills for comforting grieving friends effectively.

Courses: This single-class activity can be implemented in several courses, including interpersonal communication, the dark side of interpersonal communication, and family communication.

Objectives: Students who complete this activity should be able to: (1) outline what qualities comprise a person-centered support message; (2) discuss why highly person-centered messages are effective in providing support to others; and (3) evaluate death loss support messages across levels of person centeredness.     

Improving cancer caregivers’ emotion regulation and supportive message characteristics: Results of a randomized controlled expressive writing intervention*

This study tested whether a 17-day randomized controlled expressive writing (EW) intervention improved cancer caregivers’ emotion regulation ability and if improved emotion regulation predicted increases in verbal person-centered message characteristics present in caregivers’ recalled support conversations with cancer survivors. Participants (N?=?64) were spousal caregivers of hematopoietic stem cell transplant cancer survivors assigned to one of three writing conditions: traumatic disclosure (TD), benefit finding (BF), or a time-management control. Caregivers completed writings three times at one-week intervals, along with pre- and posttest reports of emotion regulation and written accounts of supportive conversations with spousal survivors. Both EW conditions (TD and BF) predicted reduced emotion regulation difficulty compared to the control condition. Cognitive, pronoun, and positive affect word usage within EWs did not predict emotion regulation improvement. However, use of negative emotion words predicted significant increases in emotion regulation difficulty across conditions. Verbal person-centeredness (VPC) message characteristics significantly increased from pre- to posttest for those assigned to the BF and control conditions. Despite change in VPC, emotion regulation did not mediate the relationship between condition assignment and message characteristic outcomes.     

Person-Centered Messages,Attributions of Responsibility,and the Willingness to Forgive Parental Infidelity

This study tested the degree to which person-centered disclosures about parental infidelity are associated with adult children’s attributions of responsibility for infidelity and willingness to forgive the offending parent. Participants included 299 adult children (aged 18–30) who were randomly assigned to hypothetical scenarios manipulating the person-centeredness of the offended parent’s disclosure and the biological sex of the offending parent. Although person-centered disclosures did not predict willingness to forgive, children’s attributions of responsibility for the offense did inversely predict their willingness to forgive. Meaningful differences in attributions of responsibility and willingness to forgive emerged on the basis of the sex of the offending parent. The results support attribution theory by showing that part of understanding third-party relational transgressions involves assessments of responsibility.     

Communication Channel,Sex, and the Immediate and Longitudinal Outcomes of Verbal Person-centered Support

This study extended research on verbal person-centered (VPC) support by studying VPC in conversations, examining perceptions of support providers and receivers, testing the influence of different communication channels, and evaluating longitudinal outcomes. Two hundred fifty-five dyads composed either of two men, two women, or one man and one woman interacted in a laboratory wherein channel and level of VPC were manipulated. Evaluations of support were gathered from support providers and recipients, and recipients also reported outcomes three weeks later. Perceptions of support differed between channels, such that men providing high VPC support were evaluated more positively when using CMC, and women communicating low VPC support were evaluated more negatively online. Effects of level of VPC, channel, and provider's sex on receivers' outcomes persisted three weeks later.     

A social identity approach to understanding the impact of television messages

Based on the postulates of social identity theory (SIT), this study examined the relationship between exposure to stereotypical media messages regarding race/ethnicity and subsequent social judgments. Specifically, the association between Whites' evaluations of self and other (Latino) as a result of varying media content pertaining to criminality stereotypes was investigated. The findings were partially consistent with the posited relationships. As predicted, negatively stereotypical racial depictions in mediated messages were found to be significantly associated with social judgments. Only limited support, however, was provided for the predictions that increasing levels of racial identification would be related to increased ingroup favoritism, or that esteem would be enhanced from this mediated process of intergroup comparison.     

The Prevention Effect of Third-Person Perception: A Study on the Perceived and Actual Influence of Polls

This study ties the third-person effect phenomenon to social comparison research by positing that a downward comparison is made when people regard “others” as more influenced than themselves by persuasive messages. A likely consequence of the downward comparison is prevention behavior, which refers to the attempt to avoid undesirable outcomes. Hence we can expect a negative relationship between perceived influence of messages on others and actual influence of the messages on self. This negative relationship should be particularly likely to exist among less efficacious individuals. Utilizing a survey experiment (N = 800), which examined both the perceived and actual influence of opinion poll findings on people's issue opinions, this study shows that the prevention effect does not exist across the board, but there is enough evidence showing its existence among less efficacious people on certain issues.     

Co-rumination and Immune Inflammatory Response in Healthy Young Adults: Associations with Interleukin-6 and C-Reactive Protein

A rich literature exists reinforcing the notion that both perceived and received social support has stress ameliorating and protective benefits both psychologically and physiologically. However, recent literature suggests that excessive dyadic negative problem talk about an issue, a phenomenon labeled co-rumination, may reverse much of the beneficial effects of social support. Healthy young adults participated in a laboratory research study exploring the associations between co-rumination and immune system inflammatory response. Partial correlations indicated a positive association between co-rumination and C-reactive protein and a negative association between co-rumination and interleukin-6 after controlling for stress, anxiety, and temperature. Discussion focuses on the means by which co-rumination may lead to negative health outcomes.     

Examining the Decision to Talk with Family About Organ Donation: Applying the Theory of Motivated Information Management

Research on organ donation suggests a strong association between family discussions about the issue and final organ donor status. However, very few studies have examined the factors that influence individuals’ willingness to talk directly to their family about this topic or the impact of these discussions. This investigation provides a partial test of a newly developed theory of information management to better understand the processes of family discussions about organ donation. Results from two studies generally support the utility of the theory in this context, suggest ways in which organ donation campaigns may improve their effectiveness, and recommend future directions for researchers in this area. Moreover, the data show differences across ethnic groups that support and extend past work in this area.     

Mother Goose and Mother Nature: Designing Stories to Communicate Information About Climate Change

Narratives have the ability to highlight climate change information in a relatable and engaging format. The purpose of the present investigation was to test the effects of five story structure types containing climate change information on perceived message effectiveness. Furthermore, we measured whether political affiliation moderated persuasive effectiveness of climate change messages among U.S. eligible voting adults (N = 594) who identified as Republican, Democrat, and Independent. The highest rated story overall was situated in the past, was realistic, and had clear moral values, indicating that certain appealing stories can serve as effective conduits for persuasive messages across the political spectrum. There were few differences between political affiliations, namely, that Democrats and Republicans rated messages differently on effectiveness when they differed on moral themes.     

Precursors to probation and parole agent intent to send informational,emotional, and esteem social support messages to female clients

Supervising agents serve as sources of social support for over one million women in the US on probation and parole who strive to avoid recidivism. Little is known about the supportive messages agents intend to provide their female clients or their precursors. The optimal matching model of social support is used in an investigation of the precursors to agents’ intent to send different types of social support messages to the women they supervise. Results indicated that supervising agents intended to provide informational support in the form of suggestions or advice, esteem support in the form of compliments, and emotional support in the form of encouragement to the women. Both agent communication pattern and offender level variables were precursors to the intent to send informational support messages, but only agent communication pattern variables predicted the intent to send emotional support messages.     

Supportive communication from bystanders of cyberbullying: indirect effects and interactions between source and message characteristics

Cyberbullying is an increasingly common experience that produces psychosocial consequences for targets. Interventions encouraging bystanders to support targets of cyberbullying are limited by a lack of focus on what to communicate. This study considers supportive messages that emphasize emotional comfort, attributions of responsibility, and beliefs that people can change as relevant to this context, and it examines how perceptions of messages differ based on whether support providers have or lack experience with cyberbullying. We extend research on the indirect effects model of supportive communication by randomly assigning participants (N?=?304), who self-identify as targets of cyberbullying, to message and source conditions and assessing their perceptions of messages, providers, and outcomes. Impressions of messages mediate their influence on outcomes, and the experiential similarity of support providers moderates these effects. Certain messages, notably those contending that bullies can change, are less effective when delivered by sources who lack experience with bullying.     

A functional perspective on the study of social movements

Esteem support is a particular form of social support that is provided with the intent of enhancing how others feel about themselves and their attributes, abilities, and accomplishments. This study examines the association between perceptions of esteem support message helpfulness and (a) characteristics of the esteem support situation, (b) the relationship between provider and recipient, and (c) features of the perceived esteem support message. Participants (N = 55) recalled two esteem-threatening situations, one for which they received helpful esteem support and another for which they received unhelpful esteem support. Messages and features of situations and helpers were coded. Results indicate that features of the esteem support message and the helper are related to perceptions of messages helpfulness.     

Let Me Tell You About My Success: The Implications of Attribution-Based Capitalization Response Messages for Discloser Affect

Capitalization attempts, or the sharing of personal good news, can have positive outcomes for disclosers when met with a skillful response. This study reports on a test of an attribution-based theoretical framework for capitalization response messages. Participants (N = 314) read capitalization response messages created by crossing the causal attribution dimensions of locus, stability, and globality. They rated messages for their anticipated effect on positive and negative affect. Results indicate that messages that make internal attributions for success are rated significantly higher on positive affect and lower on negative affect than messages making external attributions, as are messages making stable versus unstable attributions. The stability dimension moderates the impact of the globality dimension on message ratings. Implications for attribution and social support theories are discussed.     

Explaining Gender Differences in the Perception of Support Availability: The Mediating Effects of Construct Availability and Accessibility

Perceived support availability (PSA), a general belief about the likelihood that social support will be available when needed, is associated with numerous processes and outcomes of supportive communication. Currently, however, there is little understanding of the factors that contribute to this belief. Numerous studies have reported gender differences in PSA, with women generally indicating that they see support as more available than do men; in turn, gender differences in PSA have been cited to explain gender differences in the production and interpretation of supportive messages. In an effort to explain gender differences in PSA and, more broadly, understand the social-cognitive factors that contribute to individual differences in PSA, this article proposes and reports a test of a theoretical model that treats PSA as the outcome of the availability and accessibility of cognitive schemata for construing social situations. Participants (150 men and 271 women) completed instruments providing assessments of PSA, construct availability (cognitive complexity), and construct accessibility (expressive and instrumental orientations). Bootstrap procedures for the simultaneous assessment of multiple mediators found that construct accessibility generally was a stronger mediator of gender differences in PSA than construct availability. However, a cooperative suppression effect was found for 1 index of construct accessibility, complicating the interpretation of mediation effects.     

The Relationship Between Social Support and Type 2 Diabetes Risk

Prior research links social support with several positive health outcomes. However, less is known about the association between social support and Type 2 diabetes risk factors, such as glycemic control. This study uses a nationally representative sample from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to examine the relationship between social support and glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels. The data were analyzed through hierarchical logistic regression. Results indicate an inverse relationship between elevated HbA1c levels and individuals’ satisfaction with their partners’ daily interactions. Implications include the possibility of reducing Type 2 diabetes risk through communication interventions highlighting the importance of maintaining positive daily interactions.     

Effects of reintegration difficulties,perceived message acceptance and perceived autonomy support on U.S. military Veterans’ evaluations of messages encouraging them to seek behavioral health care

This online experiment integrates confirmation, politeness, and self-determination theories to examine how Veterans evaluate family members’ messages encouraging them to seek behavioral health care. Veterans (N?=?226) evaluated messages manipulated to express high or low levels of acceptance and autonomy support, completed outcome measures (persuasiveness, relational impact, identity management, emotions), and reported on their own reintegration difficulties. Positive associations were found between perceived message acceptance and three outcomes, and perceived autonomy support and two outcomes. Reintegration difficulties were associated with more negative message perceptions. Perceived acceptance and autonomy support also mediated a number of associations between manipulated message features and outcomes, as well as reintegration difficulties and outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Anonymity and Interaction in an Online Breast Cancer Social Support Group

Despite the benefits of using online social support groups, prior research does not provide a solid understanding of the online factors related to an individual’s supportive interaction. Accordingly, this study aims to explore how various aspects of anonymity predict different levels of social support engagement. The current study uncovers that visually identifiable group members are more likely to get supportive responses than are visually anonymous members. Also, when support group members are visually and discursively identifiable, they are more likely to get supportive messages than those who are visually and discursively anonymous. Additionally, the more identifiable support group members are, the more they receive positive messages. Practical implications for the role of social support group members’ anonymity/identifiability on the overall social support process are presented.     

An uninformed electorate: identity-motivated elaboration,partisan cues,and learning

ABSTRACT

A deliberative democracy is reliant on an informed electorate discussing issues and presenting persuasive arguments. Individuals acquire information from exposure to political messages. Partisan cues, however, undermine learning outcomes. The current study experimentally examines the social cognitive processes that underlie this learning process. Integrating the social identity theory, elaboration likelihood model, and the theory of motivated reasoning to construct the theoretical concept of identity-motivated elaboration, the results indicate that partisan social identities motivate biased processing of new information, which subsequently influences the valence of elaboration. Positively and negatively valenced elaboration are situated as mediating variables in the structural model, which predicts learning from a persuasive political message. The current study extends the partisan social identity hypothesis to the elaborative and learning outcomes of political messages.     

Perceived organizational effectiveness,job satisfaction,culture, and communication: Challenging the traditional view

This study challenges the traditional view that organizational culture, relationships, and communication activities precede or produce the outcomes of job satisfaction and perceived organizational effectiveness. Specifically, the study (a) empirically examines job satisfaction and perceived effectiveness for their potential as important explanatory processes for the outcomes of organizational culture, relationships, and information receiving and sending, and (b) empirically compares the traditional model with the competing conceptualization. Results of a canonical correlation analysis utilizing 2245 individuals in 21 organizations in various parts of the world indicate that 54.8% of the variance in perceptions of culture, relationships, information receiving, and information sending can be explained by job satisfaction and perceived organizational effectiveness. Results of a nested model comparison of the two models using latent variable path analysis demonstrated that the competing conceptualization is a significantly better fit to the data than the traditional view.     

Relational Communication in Computer-Mediated Interaction Revisited: A Comparison of Participant–Observer Perspectives

Studies of online environments estimate that the majority of members in online forums do not contribute to ongoing discussions and only observe or “lurk” (e.g., Nonnecke & Preece, 2000). Despite the prevalence of this form of information acquisition, direct comparisons between the experiences of these “observers” (or “lurkers”) and active participants are lacking. The present research draws on previous research examining perceptual differences between participants and observers as well as social information processing theory (Walther, 1992) and reports on three studies examining such differences in computer-mediated communication (CMC). Study 1 examined the effects in the context of interpersonal interaction in synchronous CMC. Study 2 examined the effects in the context of group interaction in both synchronous and asynchronous CMC. Study 3 replicated and extended the results of the previous studies across two time periods. The overall results (a) support the presence of participant–observer differences in CMC, (b) show that the presence of anticipated future interaction moderates said differences, and (c) provide mixed evidence that participant and observer interpretations of relational messages converge over time.