Deborah S. Ballard-Reisch

Investigating the Behavioral Indicators of Relational Commitment

Although the commitment literature has made good progress at explaining why people stay in or leave relationships, much of this literature does not address the daily behavioral aspects of relationship commitment. This article reports the results of two studies undertaken to more systematically investigate the behavioral indicators of commitment. The first study asked 248 people what things they do or say to show their commitment to their partners. Participants identified a total of 928 behaviors that were coded into 10 major categories of indicators of commitment: providing affection, providing support, maintaining integrity, sharing companionship, making effort to communicate, showing respect, creating a relational future, creating a positive relational atmosphere, working on relationship problems together, and expressing commitment. A second study with a new sample of 350 people was under- taken to explore the association between the use of these behavioral indicators and both structural and perceptual elements of the relationship. Results showed that there were significant differences in the use of behavioral indicators depending on relationship type and sex. Results also showed that the greater the use of specific behavioral indicators, the higher the levels of commitment and satisfaction.

Using Paired Data to Test Models of Relational Maintenance and Marital Quality

Recent research has developed a good understanding of how maintenance behaviors are related to husbands’ and wives’ individual perceptions of marriage. Unfortunately, one of the limitations is that data have been collected from an individual spouse and may be misleading when applied to the relationship as a whole. The purpose of the present study was to test a procedure by which data collected from spouses can be used to examine joint couple-level concepts. Specifically, the study employs structural equation modeling with 129 married couples to examine the relationship between husbands’ and wives’ use of maintenance behaviors and joint couple-level constructs of marital quality. The final models for couple satisfaction, couple commitment, and couple love had good fits, indicating that individual use of maintenance behaviors has an influence upon couples’ marital quality. Also, wives’ overall use of maintenance behaviors had a stronger relationship with marital quality than did husbands’ use of maintenance behaviors.

The influence of marital duration on the use of relationship maintenance behaviors

This paper presents a study of the use of relationship maintenance behaviors—behaviors that function to preserve ongoing relationships—in marriages of varying durations. Data collected from 143 married couples revealed that the use of maintenance behaviors generally followed a curvilinear pattern in which maintenance behaviors were used most frequently in the early years of marriage, dropped during the middle years, and rebounded in more long‐term marriages. Results also indicated that the length of the marital relationship did not moderate the strength of relationship between the use of maintenance behaviors and perceptions of marital quality. Thus, it appears that even though the use of maintenance behaviors varies over the course of marriage, their utilization remains important in fostering continued positive perceptions of the marriage.

The Impact of Relational Maintenance Behaviors on Marital Satisfaction: A Longitudinal Analysis

In this study we investigate the longitudinal relation between maintenance behaviors and marital satisfaction. Forty married couples completed measures of maintenance behaviors and marital satisfaction at Time 1. The couples again completed the measure of marital satisfaction 1 year later. Analyses revealed that the use of maintenance behaviors at Time 1 was related to perceptions of satisfaction at Time 2. Further, certain maintenance behaviors seem to be more influential than others in predicting later perceptions of marital satisfaction. The findings suggest that the maintenance behaviors of wives and husbands are systemically and dynamically connected, and that the maintenance of marriages is a highly complex process.

An Interaction-Based Model of a Social Exchange in the Two-Generation Farm Family.

Rural family counselors, family life educators, and Cooperative Extension agents continue to face the task of helping farm families deal wth the aftermath of the farm crisis. The task is especially difficult when more than one generation is involved. This article presents a model which blends the family and work spheres into an exchange-based model of family interaction in two-generation farm families. Specific recommendations are made to help rural family practitioners better understand and work with two-generation farm families.

Constructing Commitment in Intimate Relationships Mapping Interdependence in the Everyday Expressions of Commitment

By its very nature, relationship commitment is generated in the context of a relationship and becomes relational when it is communicated in some way to the other. This study investigated how expressions of commitment and commitment-related perceptions are interdependently connected among romantic partners. The authors derived and tested a dyadic cyclical model of the everyday expressions of commitment with a sample of 189 romantically involved couples. Results revealed that individual’s level of commitment are associated with her or his own expressions of commitment, those expressions of commitment are noticed by the partners, and the partner’s level of commitment is associated with those perceptions of the other’s expressions of commitment. The research sheds light on the complex ways intimate couples experience and express commitment in their everyday lives.

Falling Less in Kansas: Development of a Fall Risk Reduction Toolkit

Falls are a serious health risk for older adults. But for those living in rural and frontier areas of the USA, the risks are higher because of limited access to health care providers and resources. This study employed a community-based participatory research approach to develop a fall prevention toolkit to be used by residents of rural and frontier areas without the assistance of health care providers. Qualitative data were gathered from both key informant interviews and focus groups with a broad range of participants. Data analysis revealed that to be effective and accepted, the toolkit should be not only evidence based but also practical, low-cost, self-explanatory, and usable without the assistance of a health care provider. Materials must be engaging, visually interesting, empowering, sensitive to reading level, and appropriate for low-vision users. These findings should be useful to other researchers developing education and awareness materials for older adults in rural areas.

Gender Expression as a Reflection of Identity Reformation in Couple Partners Following Disclosure of Male-to-Female Transsexualism

ABSTRACT This qualitative study examined gender expression as a reflection of identity reformation in male-to-female transsexual persons and their nontranssexual female partners following the disclosure of transsexualism in relationships that were established as man-woman. Each partner in 17 couples participated in individual interviews. The gender expression of each couple partner evolved as male-to-female persons progressed in their male-to-female transition. Three themes related to male-to-female gender expression emerged as the couples reformed their identities and relationships: (a) phases: exploration/experimentation, adolescence, and maturation; (b) (re)gendering as women: behavior and interactions; and (c) visual congruence: dual/single presentation and sex reassignment surgery.

The Intersection of Public Health and Cross-Cultural Communication: Illustrations from the Tatarstan Women’s Health Initiative

This paper reports on the application of Sharf and Kahler’s (1996) Cultural Sensitivity Model to the experiences of cross-cultural researchers engaged in the conduct of the Tatarstan Women’s Health Survey. In the summer of 2001, a cross-cultural team composed of researchers from Kazan State Medical University, Kazan State University, RO RT OPP Women of Russia Movement and the University of Nevada, Reno, USA, with the support of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Tatarstan, conducted an interview study of 1018 female subjects throughout the Tatarstan Republic. Topics covered dealt with a variety of interpersonal, intercultural, social and economic issues faced by Tatarstan women in their everyday life. This paper analyzes the choices and challenges experienced by the cross-cultural research team as they engaged in this collaborative project, and reiterates the importance of applied communication theory and research in promoting international public health collaborations. Basic tenets of effective international public health collaborations have emerged and their implications are discussed.

Section Editor's Note: Innovative Methods for Studying Family Communication

Interest in studying communication in family units and family relationships has grown tremendously from its early beginnings in psychology and sociology thanks to the pioneering efforts of scholars such as Rausch, Barry, Hertel, and Swain (1974), Kantor and Lehr (1975), Bochner (1976), Gottman (1979), and Fitzpatrick (1988). Building on these pioneering efforts, theorists and teachers have continued to keep interest in family communication at the forefront of communication research. Galvin, Brommel, and Bylund (1986), Noller and Fitzpatrick (1992), Yerby and Beurkel-Rothfuss (1994), Pearson (1997), Turner and West (1998), Sussman, Steinmetz, and Peterson (1999), and Vangelisti (2004), among others, have advanced the study of family communication over the past quarter-century. Similarly, research methods used to study families have become more varied and diverse, emphasizing quantitative and qualitative approaches as well as the use of multiple measures and multilevel analyses (Noller & Feeney, 2004). Studying communication in family units, however, continues to bring special challenges. How should researchers examine communication among multiple family members in a dynamic manner? What factors in addition to verbal and nonverbal communication are components of communicative behavior in families? With the multitude of life histories, family types, and an endless supply of social, political, economic, and technological forces that buffet families, how can family research methodology best accommodate the complexities of family communication? How can the potentially diverse perspectives of multiple members be analyzed? The articles in this special issue offer methods that address these questions. Our goal for this special issue was to bring together a diverse, multidisciplinary compilation of articles and approaches that identified a challenge or opportunity in family communication research, and then advanced and explained an appropriate THE JOURNAL OF FAMILY COMMUNICATION, 4(3&4), 261–264 Copyright