Communication Commons^™

Constructing Family: A Typology Of Voluntary Kin, Leslie Baxter, Dawn Braithwaite

Dawn O. Braithwaite

This study explored how participants discursively rendered voluntary kin relationships sensical and legitimate. Interpretive analyses of 110 interviews revealed four main types of voluntary kin: (i) substitute family, (ii) supplemental family, (iii) convenience family, and (iv) extended family. These types were rendered sensical and legitimated by drawing on the discourse of the traditional family. Except for the extended family, three of four voluntary kin family types were justified by an attributed deficit in the blood and legal family. Because voluntary kin relationships are not based on the traditional criteria of association by blood or law, members experience them as potentially …

Stepfamily Relations, Dawn Braithwaite, P. Schrodt, Leslie Baxter

Dawn O. Braithwaite

No abstract provided.

Types Of Communication Triads Perceived By Young-Adult Stepchildren In Established Stepfamilies, Leslie Baxter, Dawn Braithwaite, L. Bryant

Dawn O. Braithwaite

This study was an analysis of the kinds of residential parent-stepparent-stepchild triadic communication structures expressed in interviews with 50 college-aged children from established stepfamilies. In an interpretive analysis of the interview transcripts, four communication structures were identified. In the linked triad the stepchild relied on indirect communication with the stepparent through his or her residential parent. The outsider triad was characterized by the stepchild communicating primarily with the residential parent with limited awareness of interdependence with the stepparent. In the adult-coalition triad the stepchild perceived that the residential parent and stepparent had formed a coalition, leading to cautious and distrustful …

“You're My Parent But You're Not”: Dialectical Tensions In Stepchildren's Perceptions About Communicating With The Nonresidential Parent, Dawn Braithwaite, Leslie Baxter

Dawn O. Braithwaite

The nonresidential parent plays a role in the lives of stepchildren and in stepfamily households. The focus of the present study was on the interaction between the nonresidential parent and his/her child who resides as part of a stepfamily household. Grounded in relational dialectics theory, the researchers performed an interpretive analysis of 50 transcribed interviews with college-aged stepchildren. Stepchildren's perceptions of communication with the nonresidential parent were animated by two contradictions: parenting/nonparenting and openness/closedness. These two contradictions form a totality, interwoven with one another. The parenting/nonparenting contradiction reflected stepchildren's ambivalence over parenting attempts of nonresidential parents. Stepchildren wanted nonresidential parent …

Reclaiming Uncertainty: The Formation Of New Meanings In Relationships, Leslie Baxter, Dawn Braithwaite

Dawn O. Braithwaite

No abstract provided.

Grieving Together And Apart: Bereaved Parents’ Contradictions Of Marital Interaction, Paige W. Toller, Dawn O. Braithwaite

Dawn O. Braithwaite

The researchers adopted relational dialectics theory (Baxter & Montgomery, 1996) to examine the discourse of 37 bereaved parents. Research questions guiding the study were what dialectical contradictions do bereaved parents experience when communicating with their marital partner after their child’s death and how do bereaved parents and their marital partners communicatively negotiate the dialectical contradictions they experience? Our analysis revealed that bereaved parents experienced a dialectical contradiction between trying to grieve their child’s death together as a couple and apart as individuals. Likewise, parents experienced a contradiction between being both open and closed when talking with one another about their …

Casing Interpersonal Communication: Case Studies In Personal And Social Relationships, Dawn Braithwaite, Julia Wood, Paige Toller

Dawn O. Braithwaite

Chapter 26: "I'm Sorry for Your Loss": Communicating with Those Who Are Bereaved, authored by Paige Toller, UNO faculty member.

Casing Interpersonal Communication encourages students to learn about interpersonal communication by exploring real life situations. The engaging cases invite students to use abstract and conceptual knowledge drawn from theory and research to analyze and address concrete circumstances that will help them to then apply this knowledge to their own lives.

Social Dialectics: The Contradictions Of Relating, Leslie Baxter, Dawn Braithwaite

Dawn O. Braithwaite

No abstract provided.

Becoming A ―Real Family‖: Turning Points And Competing Discourses In Stepfamilies, Dawn Braithwaite

Dawn O. Braithwaite

No abstract provided.

Empty Ritual: Young-Adult Stepchildren's Perceptions Of The Remarriage Ceremony, Leslie Baxter, Dawn Braithwaite, Jody Kellas

Dawn O. Braithwaite

This qualitative study investigated 80 young-adult stepchildren’s talk about one of their parents’ remarriage ceremony. The remarriage event was celebrated in six types of ritual enactments, five of which celebrated the couple’s marriage and one of which was family-centered in its celebration of the beginning of the new stepfamily. Three factors led stepchildren to find the remarriage ceremony empty: (i) a ritual form that was too traditional or not traditional enough; (ii) a ritual enactment that failed to pay homage to either the stepchild’s family of origin or the stepfamily as a unit; and (iii) a ritual enactment that failed …

Becoming A Family: Turning Points And Interaction Patterns In The Development Of A Blended Family, Dawn Braithwaite, Leslie Baxter

Dawn O. Braithwaite

No abstract provided.

“I Need Numbers Before I Will Buy It”: Reading And Writing Qualitative Scholarship On Close Relationships, Dawn Braithwaite, Julia Moore, Jenna Abetz

Dawn O. Braithwaite

The authors highlight important contributions of qualitative research for the study of close relationships, arguing for greater representation of this scholarship in the journals. Four challenges experienced by interpretive researchers trying to publish in Journal of Social and Personal Relationships and close relationship journals are discussed.

Relational Dialectics Theory Applied, Leslie Baxter, Dawn Braithwaite

Dawn O. Braithwaite

No abstract provided.

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

Dawn O. Braithwaite

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 …

Stepchildren’S Perceptions Of The Contradictions In Communication With Stepparents, Leslie Baxter, Dawn Braithwaite, Leah Bryant, A. Wagner

Dawn O. Braithwaite

This interpretive study, framed in relational dialectics theory, sought to identify stepchildren’s perceptions of the contradictions that animate communication with the stepparent in their household of primary residence. In-depth interviews were conducted, producing 802 pages of double-spaced interview transcripts, which were analyzed inductively for commonly experienced contradictions of stepchild–stepparent communication. Three underlying contradictions were identified. First, stepchild–stepparent communication was perceived to be characterized by a dialectic of integration, characterized by both closeness and distance. Second, stepchild–stepparent communication was perceived to be characterized by a dialectic of parental status, in which the stepparent was, and was not, granted legitimacy in a …

The Divorce Decree, Communication, And The Structuration Of Coparenting Relationships In Stepfamilies, Paul Schrodt, Leslie Baxter, M. Mcbride, Dawn Braithwaite, Mark Fine

Dawn O. Braithwaite

sing Giddens's (1984) structuration theory, this study explored the communicative processes surrounding the divorce decree in coparenting relationships in stepfamilies. Participants included 21 adults who were coparenting children in stepfamilies who completed diary entries of all interactions with coparents over a 2-week period, and who completed follow-up interviews. Results revealed two structures of signification with respect to the divorce decree that enabled and constrained coparenting interactions. The first signification structure was one in which the decree was framed as a legal document, dictating the rights and responsibilities of parenting, especially with respect to child access and financial issues. The second …