Kristen Carr

“If You Can Dream It, You Can Achieve It.” Parent Memorable Messages as Indicators of College Student Success

This study investigated various aspects of parents’ memorable messages about college as they relate to indicators of college student success. Findings revealed that parents’ memorable messages about college focused on working (and playing) hard, the necessity of attending college, providing encouragement and support, and general advice based on parents’ own experiences. Although these message themes were not uniquely predictive of college student success, the students’ perceptions of message and sender characteristics emerged as significant predictors of cognitive learning indicators, learner empowerment, college motivation, and satisfaction with college. Theoretical and practical implications for findings are discussed.

Giving Voice to the Silence of Family Estrangement: Comparing Reasons of Estranged Parents and Adult Children in a Nonmatched Sample

This study investigated 898 parents’ and adult children’s reasons for estrangement in light of research on interpersonal attributions and the relational consequences of perspective-taking. Three primary categories emerged: estrangement resulted from intrafamily, interfamily, or intrapersonal issues. Within each category, the frequency of parents’ and children’s reasons for estrangement differed significantly from each other. Parents reported that their primary reason for becoming estranged stemmed from their children’s objectionable relationships or sense of entitlement, whereas adult children most frequently attributed their estrangement to their parents’ toxic behavior or feeling unsupported and unaccepted. Parents also reported that they were unsure of the reason for their estrangement significantly more often than did children. Examining estrangement from the perspective of both parents and adult children offers potential avenues for family reconciliation and future communication research.

The Benefits and Risks of Telling and Listening to Stories of Difficulty Over Time: Experimentally Testing the Expressive Writing Paradigm in the Context of Interpersonal Communication Between Friends

The overarching goal of the current study was to determine the impact of talking interpersonally over time on emerging adults’ individual and relational health. Using an expressive writing study design (see Frattaroli, 2006), we assessed the degree to which psychological health improved over time for college students who told and listened to stories about friends’ current difficulties in comparison with tellers in control conditions. We also investigated the effects on tellers’ and listeners’ perceptions of each other’s communication competence, communicated perspective-taking, and the degree to which each threatened the other’s face during the interaction over time to better understand the interpersonal communication complexities associated with talking about difficulty over time. After completing prestudy questionnaires, 49 friend pairs engaged in three interpersonal interactions over the course of 1 week wherein one talked about and one listened to a story of difficulty (treatment) or daily events (control). All participants completed a poststudy questionnaire 3 weeks later. Tellers’ negative affect decreased over time for participants exposed to the treatment group, although life satisfaction increased and positive affect decreased across time for participants regardless of condition. Perceptions of friends’ communication abilities decreased significantly over time for tellers. The current study contributes to the literature on expressive writing and social support by shedding light on the interpersonal implications of talking about difficulty, the often-overlooked effects of disclosure on listeners, and the health effects of talking about problems on college students’ health.

Rumination, Conflict Intensity, and Perceived Resolvability as Predictors of Motivation and Likelihood of Continuing Serial Arguments

This study examined rumination, conflict intensity, and perceived resolvability as predictive of factors that sustain serial arguments. Young adults reported on serial arguments in either parent–child or romantic relationships. In parent–child relationships, perceived resolvability was inversely related to the likelihood of continuing a serial argument, unless the argument was high in intensity and rumination, or low in intensity and rumination. In dating relationships, partners were more motivated about the argument when they were either (a) ruminating about the issue but did not view it as resolvable, or (b) when they believed the argument to be resolvable but did not ruminate about it. Collectively, the results identify factors that contribute meaningful variance to understudied aspects of serial arguments.

The Role of Family and Marital Communication in Developing Resilience to Family-of-Origin Adversity

ABSTRACT To explain recovery from adverse experiences, researchers have focused on resilience as a process occurring within individuals. This study extends existing research by positioning resilience as an interpersonal process in which people communicatively interpret and respond to adversity. Married participants who experienced significant adversity in their family of origin (n = 193) reported on their familial and marital communication and personal characteristics. Overall, resilience was influenced by the unique and combined influences of individual, marital, and family factors. Individuals’ optimism and efficacy emerged as predictors of resilience, and communicated support from a marital partner was particularly important for those lower in optimism. People from families with a balance of cohesion and flexibility and strong communication were more resilient, regardless of the amount of adversity they experienced. In unbalanced families, supportive marital communication served in a compensatory role to promote resilience to family of origin adversity.

Attachment Style and the Risks of Seeking Social Support: Variations between Friends and Siblings

ABSTRACT Given the essential role of supportive communication in close relationships, this study examined the perceived risks of seeking social support as both the consequence of attachment style and predictor of relational quality in the peer relationships of friends and siblings. Participants (N = 224) completed survey measures reporting on either a friend or sibling relationship. Results suggest securely attached individuals perceived less risks of seeking support from friends and siblings, which correlated with increased relational quality. Avoidant individuals perceived greater risks of seeking support from friends, but attachment was unrelated to seeking support from siblings.