Sex Differences in the Perceived Appropriateness of Receiving Verbal Aggression

This study predicted that (a) male recipients evaluate aggressive messages as more appropriate than female recipients, and (b) the magnitude of this difference varies as a function of contextual parameters. A total of 249 college-aged students responded to hypothetical scenarios to evaluate the influence of sex of the message recipient, sex of the message source, relationship type, and privacy level of the communication setting on recipients’ evaluations of appropriateness of aggressive communication. Results indicated that male recipients evaluate aggressive messages as more appropriate than female recipients, and this main effect was moderated by sex of the message source, relationship type, and privacy level. The discussion highlights the subjective experience of aggression for male and female recipients.     

Family communication patterns,sex of subject,and communication competence

Two hundred ninety‐nine subjects completed the Revised Family Communication Patterns instrument (Ritchie & Fitzpatrick, ) and the Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire (ICQ; Buhrmester, Furman, Wittenberg, & Reis, ). Results indicate that both family communication patterns and sex of subject influence the ability to enact certain communication skills in both same‐sex friendships and romantic partnerships. Those growing up in a strong conversation‐oriented family are more likely to report the ability to enact a greater number of interpersonal skills in both types of relationships. Women were more likely to report the ability to self‐disclose in a same‐sex friendship; however, a family communication environment that stresses a lower conversation orientation (consensual) diminishes the likelihood of acquiring that skill for women. Women were also more likely to report being able to offer emotional support in both same‐sex friendships and romantic partnerships. Men were more likely to report being able to assert themselves negatively in a same‐sex friendship, and to self‐disclose and manage conflict in a romantic partnership. Additionally, this study found that men and women employ different communication skills depending on the sex of their relational partner. Implications and future research directions are discussed.     

Communication Skills,Social Support,and Burnout among Advocates in a Domestic Violence Agency

Intimate partner violence affects millions of lives annually. Domestic violence advocates work to alleviate this problem; yet the nature of the work leaves them vulnerable to negative outcomes such as burnout. This study examined the relationships between communication anxiety, communication competence, perceived social support, and feelings of burnout among domestic violence advocates. Results from a survey of 69 individuals recruited from a US domestic violence agency show the combination of communication anxiety, communication competence, perceived emotional support, and perceived informational support accounted for approximately 13% of the variance in advocates' emotional exhaustion and 21% of the variance in advocates' experiences of reduced personal accomplishment. Responses also differ with the advocate's position in the agency. The following recommendations are offered: develop scenario-based communication skills training programs to reduce communication anxiety and increase communication competence, hold regular debriefing meetings to help advocates process their experiences and to receive peer support, and develop formalized mentoring programs that can provide social support for new workers.     

A Review and Meta-Analysis of Person-Centered Messages and Social Support Outcomes

Person-centered messages are a form of social support that has been theoretically and empirically linked to a variety of outcomes. Scholars would benefit by recognizing the influence of person-centered messages across a number of studies in the absence of statistical artifacts. This article reports a meta-analysis testing the association between person-centered messages and social support outcomes across 23 studies. Our results demonstrate a positive linear association between person-centeredness and actual effectiveness, and an even stronger linear relationship between person-centeredness and perceived effectiveness. The association between person-centeredness and support outcomes was attenuated in confederate-based methodologies. Moreover, the data suggest that scholars need to more precisely conceptualize and empirically assess the differences between the nine levels of the person-centered hierarchy.     

Buffering Against Sources Of Academic Stress: The Influence of Supportive Informational and Emotional Communication on Psychological Well-Being

This study examined college students’ psychological well-being as a function of both sources of academic stress and supportive communication. A total of 129 students completed measures assessing four sources of academic stress (i.e., pressures to perform, perceptions of workload, academic self-perceptions, and time restraints), psychological well-being, and two types of received supportive communication (i.e., informational and emotional). Pressures to perform, perceptions of workload, and time restraints were negatively associated with psychological well-being. In addition, the negative relationship between perceptions of workload and psychological well-being was strengthened when supportive informational communication and supportive emotional communication were individually and jointly low. Finally, the positive relationship between academic self-perceptions and psychological well-being was only significant when supportive informational communication was high.     

The Social Dimension of Blogging about Health: Health Blogging,Social Support,and Well-being

The study reported here explored the social dimension of health-related blogs by examining blogging as a means to marshal social support and, as a result, achieve some of the health benefits associated with supportive communication. A total of 121 individuals who author a blog dedicated to their experience living with a specific health condition completed the study questionnaire. The number of blog posts made by respondents and proportion of posts with reader comments were positively associated with perceived social support from blog readers. The relationship between blog reader support and two outcomes related to well-being depended upon the support available in bloggers' strong-tie relationships with family and friends. Consistent with the social compensation (i.e., “poor get richer”) perspective, blog reader support was negatively associated with loneliness and positively associated with personal growth when support in strong-tie relationships was relatively lacking.     

An Examination of Support (In)Adequacy: Types,Sources, and Consequences of Social Support among Infertile Women

This study investigated gaps between the supportive communication people desire and receive in the context of infertility. Our findings advance the notion of support adequacy by positioning social support as a dynamic resource that is contributed to from a variety of sources in numerous ways. A community sample of 301 infertile women indicated that they experience discrepancies in the support they desire compared to what they receive from their spouses, friends and family, medical professionals, and online sources. Participants experienced the most discrepancies from medical professionals, and in almost all of these discrepancies people desired more support than they received. The magnitude of the gap between people's desires and what they receive corresponds with evaluations of support quality.     

The Influence of Emotional Contagion on Student Perceptions of Instructor Rapport,Emotional Support,Emotion Work,Valence, and Cognitive Learning

This study examined how emotional contagion may influence student perceptions of rapport with the instructor, emotional support received in the classroom, emotional work performed, and perceived cognitive learning. Participants revealed that emotional contagion was positively related to perceptions of rapport with instructors but unrelated to emotional support from instructors, emotional work performed in the classroom, and valence. Students who were high in emotional contagion reported significantly more rapport, emotional support, and positive valence. When controlling for emotional contagion, only classroom valence predicted students’ perceptions of cognitive learning.     

Information Sources and the Health Information-Seeking Process: An Application and Extension of Channel Complementarity Theory

Contemporary information seekers can acquire health information from an unprecedented variety of sources. The reported study applied and extended channel complementarity theory to explain the use of multiple information sources in the health-information-seeking process. Channel complementarity was extended to consider four characteristics (i.e., access to medical expertise, tailorability, anonymity, and convenience) of health-information sources. The information-seeking behavior of 3,392 respondents from the 2007–2008 Health Information National Trends Survey was analyzed to test study hypotheses. Results indicate that, sources were used complementarily based on tailorability and anonymity during health-information sources. Additionally, the likelihood of using complementary sources based on all four characteristics changed during the search process.     

Investigating the Role of Problem Severity and Channel Publicness on the Sophistication of Support-Seeking Messages on Social Network Sites: A Replication Study

Oh and LaRose (2016) contended that problem severity and channel publicness shape support seekers’ goals, time spent composing messages, and the sophistication of those messages. The current study seeks to replicate and extend Oh and LaRose’s study to produce a more accurate understanding of the factors that influence the sophistication of support-seeking messages online. Support seekers’ goals varied according to the severity of a stressor and the publicness of a channel, and the amount of time people spent composing a message influenced its sophistication. We extend the original study by examining associations that were not initially tested. Time spent composing messages mediated the influence of problem severity on the quality of people’s messages, and this effect was moderated by channel publicness.     

On Communicating Pride,Crying in Movies,and Recruiting Innocent Bystanders: The Effect of Sex on Communication Schemas Activated with Gay and Heterosexual Targets

Invoking social identity theory as an interpretive frame, a previous content analysis of heterosexuals' representations of imagined conversations with gay men revealed a number of communication schemas for talk with the latter (e.g., homonegativity and offense avoidance). This study explores the role of participant sex in determining the prevalence of such schemas, comparatively incorporating representations of conversations with a heterosexual target. Two hundred American undergraduates imagined a conversation with a gay or heterosexual male target. Male participants' imagined conversations with a gay target were rated more negative, indicated less evidence of relational development, and included more gay stereotyping than did females' imagined dialogues.     

Social support within an on-line cancer community: an assessment of emotional support,perceptions of advantages and disadvantages,and motives for using the community from a communication perspective

This study investigated an on-line cancer support community emphasizing communication concerns important to the community administrators. The researcher conducted an on-line survey of participants (N v = v 103) focused on their on-line communication activities and social support. The results indicate a modest negative correlation between emotional support received on-line and perceived stress, differences in emotional support scores based on perceptions of disadvantages of on-line support groups, and different motives for using the community between people with cancer and family members. The study also describes suggestions based on the results that were made to community administrators and which could be used by other on-line support communities.     

Intergenerational Support and the Role of Grandparents in Post-Divorce Families: Retrospective Accounts of Young Adult Grandchildren

The purpose of the current study was to examine grandparent support to grandchildren following the divorce of parents. Participants (N = 42) responded to questions focusing on the enactment of support and relationships with grandparents. Through these retrospective, self-report accounts, six categories of grandparent support were identified. Additionally, four barriers to grandparent support emerged from the responses of the grandchildren. These categories of and barriers to intergenerational social support are discussed as they relate to characteristics and expectations of provided support in post-divorce families.     

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.     

Planning Improves Vocal Fluency and the Appearance of Concern When Communicating Emotional Support

Emotional support is often conveyed to people with cancer; however, not all support messages are effective, leading some potential supporters to fear appearing incompetent when communicating support. Additionally, nonverbal behaviors, such as vocal fluency, pitch variety, eye contact, and conveying concern, have previously been associated with support recipients’ outcomes and perceptions of speaker competence. This experiment determines whether these nonverbal behaviors can be increased through message planning. Participants were randomly assigned to either a planning condition or a distraction task condition before recording emotional support messages for a friend hypothetically diagnosed with cancer. Results showed that planners spoke with significantly more vocal fluency and conveyed significantly more nonverbal concern than nonplanners. Planners also used more eye contact and pitch variety than nonplanners, but these differences were not statistically significant. Results suggest that planning may improve some nonverbal aspects of communicating support, which may in turn improve perceptions of supporters’ competence.     

An Investigation of the Support Process: Decision,Enactment, and Outcome

This study examines factors influencing the effectiveness and relational consequences of emotional support through three phases: decision, enactment, and outcome. Participants (N = 428) completed a questionnaire asking them to identify a time they faced a traumatic event, to identify whom they turned to for support, to complete measures of trust and solidarity before and after the support episode, and to complete measures assessing the efficacy of the support exchange. Analyses revealed the type of event influenced selection of a support target, severity of event was correlated with pre-episode trust and solidarity levels, and females provided more effective support than did males. Trust and solidarity levels after the support episode were predicted, in part, by the efficacy of the support episode. Implications of the phasic model for future research on support following a traumatic event are discussed.     

Making the Most of Our Conferences and Associations: An Important Component for Communication Research,Teaching, and Service

As part of the tradition of outgoing Central States Communication Association Presidents and Executive Directors providing a spotlight column in Communication Studies, I focus on the practical value of academic conferences for the development of knowledge, enhancement of teaching and mentoring practices, and as an outlet for learning about and doing service. Communication is a practical discipline where the research has a potential to make profound and positive differences. The interaction that is allowed at conferences presents an opportunity for communication pedagogy, research, and service to transform in meaningful ways. In addition to practical advice for making the most of a conference experience, some of the most recent developments for CSCA are highlighted. The essay then ends with a personal note.     

Enacted Support and Well-Being: A Test of the Mediating Role of Perceived Control

This study examined the unique effects of three forms of enacted (i.e., received) support (emotional, unpaid assistance, financial) on well-being and tested the potential mediating role of perceived control. The analysis was based on a national sample collected through the second wave of the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) survey conducted in 2004–2006. Findings revealed emotional support exhibited a positive effect direction on well-being, while unpaid assistance and financial support both showed negative effect directions. Perceived control was found to fully mediate the relationships between all three forms of enacted support and well-being: Emotional support boosted well-being through higher perceived control, while unpaid assistance and financial support reduced well-being through lower perceived control. Findings provide evidence that effects of social resources on well-being are mediated through psychological resources.     

A Meta-Analytical Review of Family Communication Patterns and their Associations with Information Processing,Behavioral, and Psychosocial Outcomes

This meta-analysis reviews the findings of 56 studies (n=19,745) examining the associations among family communication patterns (i.e., conversation and conformity orientations) and information-processing, behavioral, and psychosocial outcomes. When both conversation and conformity orientations are considered collectively, the cumulative evidence indicates a small, but meaningful relationship between family communication patterns and overall outcomes (r=.285). Similar overall effect sizes were observed for conversation (r=.262) and conformity orientations (r=.253), though the average effect size for conversation orientation and psychosocial outcomes (r=.460) was greater in magnitude than those obtained for information processing (r=.238) or behavioral outcomes (r=.276). Slightly larger effect sizes were observed when researchers used the Revised Family Communication Patterns scale (r=.332) as compared with the Family Communication Patterns scale (r=.261), though this difference in magnitude was statistically non-significant. Collectively, the results suggest that family communication patterns have a meaningful association with a variety of cognitive activities and relational behaviors, as well as individual well-being.     

Virtually Working: Communicative and Structural Predictors of Media Use and Key Outcomes in Virtual Work Teams1 A previous version of this work was presented as a Top 3 Paper in the Organizational Communication Division at the International Communication Association Annual Conference,New Orleans,LA (May 2004).

Organizational trends toward team-based structures, globalization, and reliance on communication technology have spurred research addressing the communication processes of virtual teams. However, much of the extant research focuses on the ways virtual teams differ from conventional, face-to-face teams and fails to examine variations in virtual team characteristics that may impact team communication behaviors and experiences. The study reported here identifies two categories of virtual team characteristics (communicative and structural) and uses these to explore their relationships to team communication technology use and team outcomes. Analysis of data from 98 virtual teams reveals that structural features primarily relate to media use, whereas communication considerations are associated with team outcomes. Additional analyses indicate that various communicative predictors moderate the relationships between technology use and outcomes. These results point to theoretical and practical implications for researchers, team members, managers, and organizations related to virtual team design and communication processes.