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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Communication

Sociology

Communication Faculty Publications

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Enacting Privacy Rules And Protecting Disclosure Recipients: Parents’ Communication With Children Following The Death Of A Family Member, Paige W. Toller, M. Chad Mcbride Jan 2013

Enacting Privacy Rules And Protecting Disclosure Recipients: Parents’ Communication With Children Following The Death Of A Family Member, Paige W. Toller, M. Chad Mcbride

Communication Faculty Publications

Given the probability that the death of a family member will occur before a child has reached adulthood, the purpose of this project was to understand what motivates parents to either talk or not talk about a loved one's death with their children. Using Communication Privacy Management to inductively analyze interviews, we found parents were motivated to talk to their children about death because they wanted their children to be informed. This is reflected in the first primary theme, Recalibrating Family of Origin Privacy Orientation Rules: Motivations for Revealing. Two secondary themes further explained parents' motivations to reveal: death as …


The Impact Of Third Places On Community Quality Of Life, Leo Wayne Jeffres, Cheryl Campanella Bracken, Guowei Jian, Mary F. Casey Dec 2009

The Impact Of Third Places On Community Quality Of Life, Leo Wayne Jeffres, Cheryl Campanella Bracken, Guowei Jian, Mary F. Casey

Communication Faculty Publications

Older cities struggling with issues of survival focus on jobs and the economy, but competition requires all cities to pay attention to the quality of life that attracts residents. Creating such an inviting environment includes “third places” that foster community and communication among people outside of home and work, yet we have little empirical evidence that speaks to the subject, or their importance for a community’s quality of life. Here we report on a national U.S. survey that asked people to identify such places in their community, producing a wide variety of “third places” that ranged from the most popular …


Using Communication To Cope With Loss, Paige W. Toller Aug 2009

Using Communication To Cope With Loss, Paige W. Toller

Communication Faculty Publications

The death of a child is a devastating and life changing event. A child's death leaves parents struggling to somehow pick up the pieces of their shattered life and continue living. In the aftermath of their loss, parents are often surprised and disappointed to discover how difficult it is to talk to one another about their child's death. Likewise, parents may be frustrated to learn that they grieve very differently from their spouse. In many cases, one parent wants to talk a great deal about the child's death while the other does not. In addition, one parent may be more …


Centered But Not Caught In The Middle: Stepchildren's Perceptions Of Dialectical Contradictions In The Communication Of Co-Parents, Dawn O. Braithwaite, Paige W. Toller, Karen L. Daas, Wesley Durham, Adam C. Jones Feb 2008

Centered But Not Caught In The Middle: Stepchildren's Perceptions Of Dialectical Contradictions In The Communication Of Co-Parents, Dawn O. Braithwaite, Paige W. Toller, Karen L. Daas, Wesley Durham, Adam C. Jones

Communication Faculty Publications

The researchers adopted a dialectical perspective to study how stepchildren experience and communicatively manage the perception of feeling caught in the middle between their parents who are living in different households. The metaphor of being caught in the middle is powerful for stepchildren and this metaphor animated their discourse. A central contribution of the present study was to understand the alternative to being caught in the middle and what this alternative means to stepchildren. Reflected in the discourse of stepchildren is that to feel not caught in the middle is to feel centered in the family. Stepchildren's desire to be …