Adolescents’ perceptions of digital media’s potential to elicit jealousy, conflict and monitoring behaviors within romantic relationships

Understanding the role of digital media in adolescents’ romantic relationships is essential to the prevention of digital dating violence. This study focuses on adolescents’ perceptions of the impact of digital media on jealousy, conflict, and control within their romantic relationships. Twelve focus group interviews were conducted, among 55 secondary school students (ngirls = 28; 51% girls) between the ages of 15 and 18 years (Mage = 16.60 years; SD age = 1.21), in the Dutch-speaking community of Belgium. The respondents identified several sources of jealousy within their romantic relationships, such as online pictures of the romantic partner with others and online messaging with others. Adolescents identified several ways in which romantic partners would react when experiencing feelings of jealousy, such as contacting the person they saw as a threat or looking up the other person’s social media profiles. Along with feelings of jealousy, respondents described several monitoring behaviors, such as reading each other’s e-mails or accessing each other’s social media accounts. Adolescents also articulated several ways that they curated their social media to avoid conflict and jealousy within their romantic relationships. For instance, they adapted their social media behavior by avoiding the posting of certain pictures, or by ceasing to comment on certain content of others. The discussion section includes suggestions for future research and implications for practice, such as the need to incorporate information about e-safety into sexual and relational education and the need to have discussions with adolescents, about healthy boundaries for communication within their friendships and romantic relationships.</jats:p

Interpersonal Communication: A Mindful Approach to Relationships

Interpersonal Communication: A Mindful Approach to Relationships helps readers examine their own one-on-one communicative interactions using a mindfulness lens. The writing team of Jason S. Wrench, Narissra M. Punyanunt-Carter, and Katherine Thweatt incorporates the latest communication theory and research to help students navigate everyday interpersonal interactions. The 14 chapters in this book cover topics typically taught in an undergraduate interpersonal communication course: family interactions, interpersonal dynamics, language, listening, nonverbal communication, and romantic relationships, as well as exploring emerging areas such as self-compassion, body positivity, friendships, and “the dark side”. The writing takes on a purposefully informal tone to engage readers. Each chapter is broken into different sections that have unique instructional outcomes, key takeaways, and exercises, and concludes with real-world case studies and sample quiz questions. Also included is an extensive glossary with over 350 definitions.https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/oer-ost/1028/thumbnail.jp

I Love You (But I Can\u27t Look You in the Eyes): Explicit and Implicit Self-Esteem Predict Verbal and Nonverbal Response to Relationship Threat

Research has revealed the value of studying communication patterns, both verbal and nonverbal, in couple conflict discussions (Gottman & Levenson, 2000; Noller, Feeney, Bonnell, & Callan, 1994). In fact, the study of behavioral reactions to relationship conflict has been central to predicting important relationship outcomes, such as relationship satisfaction and breakup (e.g. see Gottman, 1998 for a review). The goal of the current dissertation was to explore how explicit (i.e., conscious, deliberate) and implicit (i.e., unconscious, automatic) self-esteem correspond to people\u27s self-reported approach and avoidance verbal and nonverbal behaviors following a relationship threat manipulation (Study 1) and people\u27s observer-rated approach and avoidance verbal and nonverbal behaviors in an actual conflict discussion (Study 2). Results revealed the importance of both explicit and implicit self-esteem for predicting responses to relationship threat, revealing a pattern of results consistent with the risk regulation model (Murray et al., 2006; 2008). These studies also revealed the value of understanding how perceptions of a partner\u27s commitment moderate the relation between implicit self-esteem and risk regulation dynamics. The results of the current research provide some of the first evidence that implicit self-esteem influences romantic relationship regulation dynamics during relationship conflict

Three modes of identity merger in close relationships

textUpon entering a relationship, individuals merge their identities with their partner’s identities to form a relational self. This proposal draws from the self-expansion and identity fusion theories to suggest three ways in which the identity merger process can unfold, with individuals either: losing their personal identities (forfeited-self mode), disproportionately influencing the relational self (imperialistic-self mode), or integrating their identities with their partner’s identities in a balanced manner (fused-self mode). I describe seven studies that aim to 1) validate a measure of these identity merger modes and explore their unique effects on personal and relational outcomes; and 2) investigate the nature of these identity merger modes. Studies 1, 2, and 3 assess discriminant and criterion validity of these identity merger modes. Studies 2 and 3 also test the hypothesis that feelings of personal agency statistically mediate the association of identity merger modes with relationship quality and responses to relationship threats and difficulties. Study 4 measures the longitudinal effects of identity merger modes in a newlywed sample through tracking how identity merger modes are linked to responses to relationship conflicts over the course of two weeks. Study 5 tests the causal effects of the identity merger modes on experimentally manipulated threats to the relationship and the partner. Study 6 explores how people’s construals about their partners and themselves differ among the identity merger modes using a reaction time task. Finally, Study 7 investigates more ecologically valid evidence of direction of influence within identity merger modes through assessing language use and verbal communication patterns between spouses. I predict that only the fused-self mode will be associated with positive relationship quality and resilience to relationship difficulties due to high personal agency within the relationship. Those in the forfeited-self mode would experience low agency within relationships and consequently internalize relationship difficulties. Finally, I predict that those in the imperialistic-self mode would respond maladaptively to relationship difficulties.Psycholog

Can You Handle the Distance? A Look Into Social Media and the Effects on Long-Distance Relationships

The following research study focused on long distance romantic relationships and the communication used when faced with separation. Many different medias are utilized in relational maintenance and the literature review of this paper explores those options. Online communication and numerous social media sites can positively or negatively affect the relationship quality. After analyzing secondary research, a primary research study was conducted monitoring one newly formed college age couple and their communication for a four-week time period. When looking at the information and data collected, there were numerous examples to show the Social Penetration Theory in this couple’s growing relationship. The final section offers limitations and suggestions for further research of similar studies

How Do Words and Body Language Diverge? Perceptions, Antecedents, and Consequences of Verbal and Nonverbal Emotional Expressions in Close Relationships

Emotional expressions play a substantive role in building and maintaining high-functioning close relationships (Algoe et al., 2013; Gable et al., 2004). However, it is not clear from existing work whether the ways in which we express emotion, specifically through verbal and nonverbal channels, might be impacting how relationships are built and maintained. In the four chapters of this dissertation, one of which provides a review of the literature within a theoretical framework and three of which are empirical, I explore the different functions these channels might have for building relationships with a particular focus on identifying how verbal and nonverbal channels are operating within highly satisfied and committed relationships. In the first chapter, I outline how verbal emotional expressions, because they are clear and undeniable, may signal that an expresser is vulnerable and is sharing their emotion intentionally, whereas nonverbal expressions may signal that an emotion is genuinely felt as well as the intensity of that emotion. I then evaluate this framework empirically, finding evidence that verbal emotional expressions are perceived to be intentional and sincere and that nonverbal expressions are also perceived to be sincere. I next examine the links between these channels of expression and their potential relational antecedents and consequences, finding that an expresser’s responsiveness and trust in the partner predict both their verbal and nonverbal expression in established, highly satisfied romantic relationships. Intriguingly, I also find unexpected evidence for the importance of relational context in that expressers are helped most (and marginally liked the most) when they express nervousness nonverbally without an accompanying verbal expression in a newly initiated relationship. In sum, this dissertation provides evidence for some differential functions of verbal and nonverbal expressions for building relationships and indicates the need to more deeply examine this distinction

A study of the effects of social media on monogamous African American heterosexual relationships on the campus of Clark Atlanta University, 2012

This study examines the relationship between social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, etc, and how the use of these websites can impact a Monogamous relationship on the campus of Clark Atlanta University. The study was based on the premise that too much social media use among couples will ultimately negatively impact a monogamous relationship. The results revealed that African Americans students who completed the survey do not believe that social media sites, like Facebook cause jealousy in relationships. When the chi square test was applied it indicated that there was no significant relationship (.218). The chi square test also indicated that there was no significant relationship (.524) between social media like Facebook and Twitter ending relationships