Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons^™

A Communication-Based Approach To Adoptive Identity: Theoretical And Empirical Support, Colleen Warner Colaner, Jordan Soliz

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

The current study uses structural equation modeling to examine adoptive parent communication as it relates to adoptee adjustment directly and indirectly through adoptive identity. Using retrospective accounts of 179 adult adoptees, findings indicate that both adoption- (adoption communication openness) and non-adoption-related (parental confirmation and affectionate communication) parental communication are related to adoptive identity work and positive affect about adoption and birth parents. Preoccupation mediates the relationship between parental communication and adoptee adjustment. The current study integrates research and theorizing from identity, adoption, and communication literatures to develop a communication-centered conceptual model of adoptive identity development to inform future adoption research …

Giving Voice To The Silence Of Family Estrangement: Comparing Reasons Of Estranged Parents And Adult Children In A Non-Matched Sample, Kristen Carr, Amanda J. Holman, Jenna Abetz, Jody Koenig Kellas, Elizabeth Vagnoni

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

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 …

High School Adolescents’ Perceptions Of The Parent–Child Sex Talk: How Communication, Relational, And Family Factors Relate To Sexual Health, Amanda Holman, Jody Koenig Kellas

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This research focuses on how high school adolescents’ (n= 159) perceptions of parent– adolescent communication about sex, including communication frequency, parent–child closeness, parents’ communication competence and effectiveness, as well as the larger family environment relates to sexual risk-taking and permissive sexual attitudes. Findings show that perceived parental communication competence and effectiveness were the strongest negative predictors of adolescents’ permissive sexual attitudes and sexual risk-taking, whereas peer communication frequency was a significant positive predictor. In contrast with previous research, adolescents’ perception of parent communication frequency and family communication climate (e.g., conversation orientation and conformity orientation) was unrelated to adolescents’ sexual risk.

Organizational Secrecy And The Fbi’S Cointelpro–Black Nationalist Hate Groups Program, 1967–1971, Kristen Hoerl, Erin Ortiz

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

In this article, we explain how secrecy influenced the communication and decision-making processes within COINTELPRO–Black Nationalist Hate Groups, the FBI’s covert program to disrupt left-leaning Black political organizations between 1967 and 1971. Memos exchanged between the FBI Director and field offices reveal how the organization strategized to conceal its identity as the source of anonymous communication. The Bureau developed explicit techniques for managing the content of their messages, the materials used to construct print messages, and the distribution of those messages. The Bureau’s techniques suggest that organizational secrecy involves a high degree of coordination between members, but it may also …

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, Jody Koenig Kellas, Haley Kranstuber Hortsman, Erin K. Willer, Kristen Carr

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

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 …

Chaos, Reports, And Quests: Narrative Agency And Co-Workers In Stories Of Workplace Bullying, Stacy Tye-Williams, Kathleen J. Krone

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study examined narratives that targets of workplace bullying told about their difficult work experiences along with how co-workers were framed in these narratives. Three different narrative types emerged from their accounts: chaos, report, and quest narratives. Co-worker responses of support or lack thereof were related to the construction of various narrative forms and the level of narrative agency evident in target accounts. The study has important implications for the difference co-workers can make in a target’s ability to withstand bullying and narrate his or her experience.

Communicating Ethos At The Center, Kristen Hoerl, Mercedes Kolb, Ethan Gregerson, William Butler

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Tutoring center staff must communicate their credibility to effectively assist students. Ethos is a term used within the discipline of rhetoric to describe the process of demonstrating one’s good character and credibility. Based on the works of Aristotle, ethos is one of three devices or modes of argumentative support. Ethos refers to the character of the speaker, whereas logos concerns effective reasoning, and pathos relates to the use of emotional appeals. Although they are often considered separately, appeals to ethos, logos, and pathos may function collectively to persuade an audience. While a speaker’s prior reputation influences audience perceptions, the concept …

The Impact Of Criminalization Of Stalking On Italian Students: Adherence To Stalking Myths, Laura De Fazio, Chiara Sgarbi, Julia Moore, Brian H. Spitzberg

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Although behaviors that we today identify as stalking have occurred throughout history, the recognition and systematic investigation of stalking are quite recent. Italy’s antistalking law is fairly new, and factors such as cultural myths, stereotypical beliefs, and definitional ambiguities continue to cause problems in the interpretation and recognition of stalking among the general public. This study examined perceptions and attitudes of 2 groups of Italian criminology students at 2 different times, before and after the implementation of Italy’s 2009 antistalking law. The Stalking Attitudes Questionnaire (McKeon, Ogloff, & Mullen, 2009) was administered to samples in 2007 and 2010. Results revealed …

Making Sense Of Hurtful Mother-In-Law Messages: Applying Attribution Theory To The In-Law Triad, Christine E. Rittenour, Jody Koenig Kellas

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study focused on hurtful messages daughters-in-law (DILs, N = 132) reported receiving from mothers-in-law (MILs). Results reveal various hurtful message types: under- and over-involvement, personal attacks, and hurt communicated to or through a third party. Grounded in attribution theory, we examined DILs’ attributions for MILs’ hurtful messages and their perceived agreement with their husbands’ reasoning for the message. Our findings illuminate distress-maintaining and relationship-enhancing attribution biases for MILs’ behaviors, such that DILs who were less satisfied with their MILs tended to make more internal attributions for MIL hurtful behaviors, and more satisfied DILs tended to make more external attributions. …

Shaved Or Saved? Disciplining Women’S Bodies, Casey Ryan Kelly, Kristen E. Hoerl

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Proponents of sexual liberation and abstinence-until-marriage advocates appear to be on opposing ends of the sociopolitical spectrum; however, both are invested in the regulation of women’s vaginas. We argue that the rhetoric of both communities produces the same disciplinary configuration for the control of women’s bodies. Both communities instruct women that the appearance of a prepubescent and pure vagina is essential to sexual appeal and self-care. Whether sex positive or sex negative, both communities articulate a model of sexual health that negates women’s status as active, desiring subjects. Ultimately, we argue that public scrutiny of women’s vaginas implicitly and overtly …

‘‘Opening The Door’’: The History And Future Of Qualitative Scholarship In Interpersonal Communication, Dawn O. Braithwaite

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

I was fortunate to start college during the earlier days of interpersonal communication classes being taught. From the first class, I was hooked. One of the best things about working in this area is being able to teach and study concepts and practices that make a difference in people’s lives. The theme guiding my work was adapted from a phrase Wayne Brockriede used— helping people expand their repertoire of communicative choices. This is the great joy and challenge of being an interpersonal communication (IPC) scholar.

I am honored to share this forum with such outstanding scholars. My article represents a …

“We Are Not Free”: The Meaning Of (Freedom) In American Indian Resistance To President Johnson’S War On Poverty, Casey Ryan Kelly

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This essay examines how the ideograph was crafted through dialectical struggles between Euro-Americans and American Indians over federal Indian policy between 1964 and 1968. For policymakers, was historically sutured to the belief that assimilation was the only pathway to American Indian liberation. I explore the American Indian youth movement’s response to President Johnson’s War on Poverty to demonstrate how activists rhetorically realigned in Indian policy with the Great Society’s rhetoric of “community empowerment.” I illustrate how American Indians orchestrated counterhegemonic resistance by reframing the “Great Society” as an argument for a “Greater Indian American.” This analysis evinces the rhetorical significance …

Reconsidering Childfreedom: A Feminist Exploration Of Discursive Identity Construction In Childfree Livejournal Communities, Julia Moore

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This article employs participant definitional analysis, sensitized with feminist poststructuralism and critical ethnography, to understand three identity construction processes that members of childfree LiveJournal communities participate in: (a) naming childfreedom, (b) negotiating childfreedom, and (c) enacting childfreedom. I argue that childfree identities are contested and sometimes activist. Ultimately, I call for scholars to reconsider the definition of childfree to account for the complex and nuanced identities constructed by individuals who identify as such.

Détournement, Decolonization, And The American Indian Occupation Of Alcatraz Island (1969–1971), Casey Ryan Kelly

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

On November 20, 1969, eighty-nine American Indians calling themselves the “Indians of All Tribes” (IOAT) invaded Alcatraz Island. The group’s founding proclamation was addressed to “the Great White Father and All His People,” and declared “We, the Native Americans, reclaim the land known as Alcatraz Island in the name of all American Indians by right of discovery” (2). Tongue in cheek, the IOAT offered to purchase Alcatraz Island for “twenty-four dollars in glass beads and red clothe.” In this essay, I illustrate how the IOAT engaged in a rhetoric of détournement, or a subversive misappropriation of dominant discourse that disassembles …

Discursive Struggles Animating Individuals’ Talk About Their Parents’ Coming Out As Lesbian Or Gay, Diana Breshears, Dawn O. Braithwaite

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

The goal in the present study was to understand the discourses that animate children’s talk about having a parent come out and how these discourses interplay to create meaning. Data were gathered through 20 in-depth interviews with adults who remembered a parent coming out to them as lesbian or gay. One discursive struggle animated the participants’ talk about their parents’ coming out: the discourse of lesbian and gay identity as wrong vs. the discourse of lesbian and gay identity as acceptable. Analysis of participants’ talk about their familial identities revealed a range of avenues for resisting the negative discourses regarding …

Telling The Story Of Stepfamily Beginnings: The Relationship Between Young-Adult Stepchildren’S Stepfamily Origin Stories And Their Satisfaction With The Stepfamily, Jody Koenig Kellas, Leslie Baxter, Cassandra Leclair-Underberg, Matthew Thatcher, Tracy Routsong, Emily Lamb Normand, Dawn O. Braithwaite

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

The current study adopts a narrative perspective in examining the content of 80 stepchildren’s stepfamily origin stories. Results reveal five types of stepfamily origin stories: Sudden, Dark-sided, Ambivalent, Idealized, and Incremental. Results support the hypothesis that story type would predict differences in family satisfaction; stepchildren who described their stepfamily origins as Idealized were more satisfied than those whose origins were Dark-sided or Sudden. Overall, participants framed their stepfamily identity more positively when their stepfamily beginnings were characterized by closeness, friendship, and even expected ups and downs, rather than when they were left out of the process of negotiating …

Theory And Research From The Communication Field: Discourses That Constitute And Reflect Families, Kathleen M. Galvin, Dawn O. Braithwaite

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

From the disciplinary perspective of communication studies, we review theory and research in family communication, including a brief history of the family communication field; the contributions of a family communication perspective; and 5 theories of family communication: communication accommodation theory, communication privacy management theory, family communication patterns theory, narrative theor(ies), and relational dialectics theory. We then illustrate the concept of discourse dependence in family communication processes and discuss current trends in family communication research. We also suggest emerging directions for family communication scholarship.

Reimagining The Self-Made Man: Myth, Risk, And The Pokerization Of America, Aaron M. Duncan

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This article takes a rhetorical approach to the rise of gambling in America, and in particular the growth of the game of poker, as a means to explore larger changes to America’s collective consciousness that have resulted in an increased acceptance of gambling. I contend that the rise of the risk society has resulted in significant alterations to the mythology that binds Americans together. I establish this claim through the exploration of ESPN’s coverage of the 2003 World Series of Poker and its use of the myth of the self-made man. I conclude that gambling works both to critique and …

Undergraduate Instructor Assistants (Uias): Friend Or Foe, William J. Seiler, Jenna Stephenson Abetz

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Undergraduate students have been and continue to be employed as instructor assistants (UIAs) in a variety of courses across disciplines. However, relatively little empirical research has been published regarding the educational merits for them or their students. The present essay extends such research by focusing specifically on UIAs’ perceived value of the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) on their learning and personal growth. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with six former UIAs and employed a qualitative thematic analysis of their responses. Perceived benefits that emerged from the analysis include, for example, learning how to balance many different roles and responsibilities, …

Feminine Purity And Masculine Revenge-Seeking In Taken (2008), Casey Ryan Kelly

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

The 2008 film Taken depicts the murderous rampage of an ex-CIA agent seeking to recover his teenage daughter from foreign sex traffickers. I argue that Taken articulates a demand for a white male protector to serve as both guardian and avenger of white women’s “purity” against the purportedly violent and sexual impulses of third-world men. A neocolonial narrative retold through film, Taken infers that the protection of white feminine purity legitimates both male conquest abroad and overbearing protection of young women at home. I contend that popular films such as Taken are a part of the broader cultural system of …

Communicatively Managing Religious Identity Difference In Parent-Child Relationships: The Role Of Accommodative And Nonaccommodative Communication, Colleen Warner Colaner, Jordan Soliz, Leslie R. Nelson

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Guided by Communication Accommodation Theory, we examine the communicative management of religious difference in parent-child relationships. Using survey data from emerging adults (N = 409), we found that religious difference is associated with decreases in relational satisfaction and shared family identity. Further, parents’ religious communication has the potential to promote relational well-being. Accommodative communication (religious-specific supportive communication and respecting divergent values) was associated with increases in relational satisfaction and shared family identity. Two forms of nonaccommodative communication (inappropriate self-disclosure and emphasizing divergent values) were associated with decreases with relational satisfaction and shared family identity; giving unwanted advice was associated …

Parental Socialization Of Ethnic Identity: Perspectives From Multiethnic Adults, Audra K. Nuru, Jordan Soliz

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Participants (N = 113) who indicated that their parents had different ethnic or racial backgrounds provided retrospective accounts of parental messages they perceived as influential in the development of their ethnic identity. Three themes of parental messages concerning ethnic identity emerged from the participants’ responses: (a) parental messages of encouragement/egalitarianism, (b) parental messages of preference, and (c) lack of explicit parental messages/silence. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for understanding multiethnic identity development, and future directions for research are put forth.

Tensions In Talking Diversity, Linda M. Gallant, Kathleen J. Krone

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Diversity policies and programs continue to be a prominent yet problematic feature of organizational life. This study explored tensions arising as 30 employees talk about their experience with Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), Affirmative Action (AA), and diversity in a midwestern human service organization. Tensions related to fairness and fear emerged as interpretive themes prompting majority group members to avoid interacting about racial differences and minority group members to do the work of making difference meaningful. We argue that formal policies and diversity programs be reimagined so as to ease interaction constraints between groups.

Once Upon A Midnight Stalker: A Content Analysis Of Stalking In Films, Amy Sides Schultz, Julia Moore, Brian H. Spitzberg

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Media portrayals of crime have been linked to biased information processing and beliefs about society and personal risks of victimization. Much of this research has either focused on relatively holistic analyses of media consumption, or on the analysis of elements of only a few types of crime (e.g., murder, rape, assault). Research to date has overlooked how media portray stalking in interpersonal relationships. This study content analyzed 51 mainstream movies with prominent stalking themes to compare and contrast such depictions with the actual scientific data about stalking. By considering victim variables, stalker variables, relational variables, stalking behavior variables, victim response …

Communicated Perspective-Taking During Stories Of Marital Stress: Spouses’ Perceptions Of One Another’S Perspective-Taking Behaviors, Jody Koenig Kellas, Erin K. Willer, April R. Trees

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Perspective-taking has important connections to social and relational functioning, making it an important skill for marital adjustment (Long & Andrews, 1990). The current study investigated the types of behaviors indicative of communicated perspective-taking from the participant perspective as couples told stories of stressful relational events. Using a stimulated recall procedure, 68 husband and wife pairs jointly told the story of a stressful relational experience and then separately viewed their videotaped interaction and evaluated their spouses’ perspective-taking behaviors. Agreement, attentiveness, relevant contributions, coordination, positive tone, and freedom represented the categories of behaviors spouses judged to reflect …

Quality Interactions And Family Storytelling, Allison R. Thorson, Christine E. Rittenour, Jody Koenig Kellas, April R. Trees

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study examined how individuals’ satisfaction with their family, as well as the ways they negotiated the telling of a family story, combined to predict their perceived quality of the storytelling interaction. Drawing from family members’ (150 individuals, 50 families) joint telling of an often told family story, multilevel modeling analyses revealed significant variance within and between families’ perceived quality of their storytelling interaction. These variances were explained by family satisfaction and family-level ratings of engagement during storytelling. These findings drive our suggestions for future assessment of multiple members’ perspectives of joint family storytelling interactions.

The Experience And Expression Of Stepchildren’S Emotions At Critical Events In Stepfamily Life, Sandra Metts, Dawn O. Braithwaite, Paul Schrodt, Tiffany R. Wang, Amanda J. Holman, Audra K. Nuru, Jenna Stephenson Abetz

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study explored the experience and expression of emotions of adult stepchildren during four critical events in stepfamily life. During semistructured, in-depth interviews, 57 adult stepchildren shared stories about four critical events: the parental divorce, remarriage of one of the parents, an event in the stepfamily that generated feeling more like a family, and an event in the stepfamily that generated feeling less like a family. A total of 402 pages of single- spaced transcripts were coded for emotion, target, and expression of emotion resulting in positive and negative emotion categories and subcategories for all four critical events. Five research …

Communicative Responses To The Painful Self-Disclosures Of Familial And Non-Familial Older Adults, Craig Fowler, Jordan Soliz

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Data from 365 college students were used to assess young adults’ communicative responses to older persons’ painful self-disclosures (PSDs). Coupland, Coupland, and Giles (1991) proposed that recipients of PSD may respond to such disclosures via a variety of “next moves.” These responses may broadly be considered to reflect forms of prosocial engagement, passive disengagement, and active disengagement. We investigated whether young adults’ tendency to use certain responses to PSD were influenced by their affective reactions to PSD, their communicative background and characteristics, and the socio-relational context of the encounter in which PSD occurred. Results are discussed with respect to their …

Accounting For Lesbian-Headed Families: Lesbian Mothers’ Responses To Discursive Challenges, Jody Koenig Kellas, Elizabeth A. Suter

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Although lesbian mothers are often called to justify their family’s legitimacy, we know little about these interactions. The current study included 44 female coparents across 10 focus groups discussing the interactive process of discursive legitimacy challenges. Using the theoretical framework of remedial accounts (Schönbach, 1990), inductive and deductive coding revealed several existing and new types of challenges, accounting strategies, and evaluations relevant to interactions of lesbian mothers. Communicative processes unique to the interactions of female coparents included challenges emerging from societal master narratives (e.g., health care, education, politics, religion); accounting strategies such as leading by example; and evaluations related to …

Neocolonialism And The Global Prison In National Geographic’S Locked Up Abroad, Casey Ryan Kelly

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This essay examines the reformulation of colonial ideologies in National Geographic Channel’s Locked Up Abroad, a documentary program that chronicles the narratives of Westerner travelers incarcerated in foreign nations. An analysis of Locked Up Abroad evinces neocolonialism in contemporary media culture, including the historic association between dark-skin and savagery, the backwardness of the non-Western world, and the Western imperative to civilize it. The program’s documentary techniques and framing devices sustain an Otherizing gaze toward non-Western societies, and its portrayals elide a critical analysis of colonialism in its present forms. I advocate for neocolonial criticism to trace how NatGeo remains …