Relational,role, and social identity as expressed in grandparents’ personal web sites

This paper reports on an investigation of personal web sites created by grandparents. The paper examines the sites and uncovers important themes relating to the grandparent‐grandchild relationship, the grand‐parenting role, and age identity. References to age are relatively rare, occurring largely in sites created by younger grandparents, and sites concerned with social activism. A number of ways in which being a grandparent is represented as a meaningful social identity are described. Conclusions are drawn in terms of theoretical links between relational, role, and social identities and issues of importance to the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren. It is argued that a social identity theory perspective provides interesting insight on the examination of communication about family relationships.     

Attachment and Relational Satisfaction: The Mediating Effect of Emotional Communication

This study investigated associations among one partner's relational satisfaction and the other partner's style of attachment and emotional communication. Findings from a questionnaire study involving 581 couples showed that participants reported more relational satisfaction when their partners scored high in security and low in dismissiveness and preoccupation. These associations between one's relational satisfaction and the partner's attachment style were partially mediated by how the partner reported communicating emotions. Specifically, participants were less satisfied in relationships with preoccupied partners who reported expressing anger using destructive communication. Participants were less satisfied with dismissive partners who reported using detached emotional communication. Finally, participants were more satisfied with secure partners who reported using prosocial emotional communication. These findings suggest that the often-cited relationship between attachment and relational satisfaction is partially explained by emotional communication.     

Shared Family Identity,Age Salience,and Intergroup Contact: Investigation of the Grandparent–Grandchild Relationship1 This study was part of the first author's doctoral dissertation and portions of the study were presented at the National Communication Association annual meeting,Chicago, 2004.

This study investigated communicative and relational aspects of the grandparent–grandchild relationship that lead to perceptions of age salience and shared family identity with the grandparent. The perceptions represent manifestations of inter- and intragroup levels of categorization in dealing with the other family member. The association between these group-oriented categorizations and perceptions of intergenerational contact outside of the family was examined. Participants (N?=?369) completed questionnaires assessing perceptions of experiences with multiple grandparents. Findings showed that general family identification of the grandchild, parental encouragement, and personal communication (social support and reciprocal self-disclosure) are positively associated with perceptions of shared family identity, whereas intergroup communication (under/overaccommodation) and perceptions of impaired health are associated with age salience. Results suggest that age salience may moderate the relationship between shared family identity and perceptions of older adults in some circumstances.     

Dogmatism of the speaker and selection of evidence

Previous research on the use of relational maintenance strategies in marriage was replicated and extended by examining diary logs of 103 married couples kept over a two‐week period. Gender differences within the marital dyads were examined. Additionally, the effect of relational satisfaction or comparison level was explored, in terms of an interdependence theory explanation of relational maintenance strategy use. The results showed significant differences between husbands and wives for openness, network, and especially tasks strategies. Wives invariably used more of each type of relational maintenance strategy than their husbands. No effects of relational satisfaction emerged, which suggested that an interdependence theory explanation of relational maintenance strategy use may be inappropriate. An ad hoc assessment of the effect of length of marriage on strategy use was significant and indicated a general decline in the use of all types of strategies as years married increased.     

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.     

Relational Maintenance in On-again/Off-again Relationships: An Assessment of How Relational Maintenance,Uncertainty, and Commitment Vary by Relationship Type and Status

Because on-again/off-again (on-off) relationships typically maintain their relationships in some form even after relational dissolution, a communication process that may be particularly relevant to understanding these relationships is relational maintenance. Using cross-sectional data, the current study assessed relational maintenance, uncertainty, and commitment to further understand how on-off relationships differ from relationships that do not have a history of renewals (i.e., noncyclical relationships). The sample of 487 participants completed a survey on either their current dating relationship or a postdissolution relationship. As predicted, on-off partners used less maintenance behaviors than noncyclical partners in current relationships, but, contrary to predictions, on-off partners did not use more maintenance behaviors in their postdissolution relationships than partners without a history of renewing. Path models assessing the interrelationships among maintenance, relationship uncertainty, and commitment also suggest relational maintenance operates somewhat differently in on-off and noncyclical relationships. Implications for on-off as well as dating relationships in general are discussed.