Colleen Colaner
Biographic Data
| ID | 759556 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Colleen Colaner |
| GIVEN NAMES | Colleen |
| FAMILY NAME | Colaner |
| SIGNATURE | COLANER C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Missouri |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3742-4646 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 146 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Children are (Still) Communicators Too
8662) revealed that child representation remains below 4%, with the majority of these publications utilizing adolescent rather than school-age and younger samples. Findings in the current study underscore the importance of valuing children's communication processes. We present a renewed call for children's communication research by arguing for the need to (1) address discipline barriers to child-focused research, (2) pay attention to younger chil…
Family Communication Patterns and Communication (non)accommodation Among Chinese Christian Migrants in Interfaith Families
The intergenerational transmission of relationship instability
This study extends prior research on the intergenerational transmission of relationship instability by examining parents' history of on‐off relationships as a predictor of emerging adults' own cycling (i.e., breaking up and renewing with the same romantic partner). Data were collected at a large mid‐western university from 702 emerging adults (18–25 years old). Multinomial logistic regression was used to predict the likelihood that participants h…
Communication Privacy Management in Open Adoption Relationships
Open adoption relationships are rife with privacy dilemmas and fuzzy boundaries, which require ongoing coordination of private disclosures as a result. The present study employed communication privacy management (CPM) theory to examine adoptive parents’ ( N = 354) private disclosures with the birth family across in-person and mediated (i.e., texting and social media) contexts. SEM analysis revealed that adoptive families who were more private and…
Adoption, Communication, and Family Networks
This special issue of the Journal of Family Communication highlights the role of communication processes in adoption placements. Six original, peer-reviewed, empirical articles comprise this special issue. Together, these articles represent cutting-edge research on the formative dialogue that sustains adoption kinship networks. Each article is theoretically driven and analytically rich, offering important advancements for adoption and communicati…
The effects of discrimination and psychological distress on U.S. Latino/a young adults’ relational uncertainty and relationship instability
Overall results suggest that racial/ethnic discrimination is associated with romantic relationship instability through its associations with psychological distress and uncertainty about the future of a relationship. Prior research demonstrates the resilience of Latino/a communities, and our findings reinforce the need for policies and clinical resources that reduce discrimination and support mental health and relationships. (PsycInfo Database Rec…
The stakes are so high and it's happening so fast
During the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, families must communicate to assess and avoid risk. Given the specific threat of COVID-19 to individuals of advanced age, a crisis of this nature may trigger a role reversal for parents and adult children in the family wherein adult children lend emotional and instrumental support to their parents while suppressing their own needs. To understand if and how the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to …
Communicatively Constructing Godparenthood
Although the godparent-godchild relationship is a centuries-old practice that creates a meaningful intergenerational bond, research on godparenthood is in its infancy. The current study examined godparent relational maintenance behaviors to provide an introductory glimpse into this relationship. Godchildren (N= 151) reported on their godparents’ relational maintenance behaviors. Assurances, social networks, and self-disclosure emerged as the most…
This Is Not the Hill to Die on. Even if We Literally Could Die on This Hill”
As information about the public health risks surrounding COVID-19 continues to shift over time, families communicate to navigate this ongoing uncertainty. For example, families must interpret inconsistent media and public health messages about COVID-19, which may in turn have implications for health risk behavior. Adding to this complexity, household structures and routines are adapting in response to COVID-19. Adult family members in some famili…
Is a dyadic stressor experienced as equally distressing by both partners? The case of perceived fertility problems
Using data from a population survey, this article explores whether perceptions of having a fertility problem among 926 U.S. couples in heterosexual relationships (women aged 25-45 and male partners) are associated with distress. Most couples did not perceive a fertility problem (58%). In almost a third (30%) of the couples, only women perceived a fertility problem; in 4%, only the men; and in nearly a fifth (19%), both perceived a problem. Adjust…
Political difference and polarization in the family
This study joins the relatively modest literature examining the effects of political disagreement in the family. We consider the effects of communication accommodation on shared family identity in the context political disagreement. To do this, we utilize survey responses from a quota-stratified sample of participants in an online panel ( N = 833) taken immediately after the contentious 2016 presidential election. We find that more disagreement a…
Communicatively Constructing Birth Family Relationships in Open Adoptive Families
Open adoption (i.e., involving ongoing communication between birth and adoptive families) has become the predominant form of private domestic adoption. As such, an understanding of the communicative structures that create and sustain these families is needed. Grounded in discourse dependent family theorizing, we explored open adoptive parents’ (n = 298) construction of the birth family relationship through naming and connecting. Thematic analysis…
Expanding the conceptual and empirical boundaries of family communication patterns
Family communication patterns theory (FCPT) explores how family members communicate to create a shared social reality via conversation and conformity orientations. Recently, scholars have noted that the current conceptualization and operationalization of conformity orientation is unnecessarily narrow in scope by representing conformity as controlling and repressive, rather than as cultivating homogenous attitudes, beliefs, and values among family…
Becoming a Transracial Family
Guided by intergroup and discourse dependence theorizing, the present study explored how divergent identities are communicatively negotiated in transracial adoptive families. Specifically, we examined how adoptive parents’ understandings of their child’s race and culture changed after adopting transracially and how adoptive parents navigated racial and cultural differences through talk. Results from 21 interviews revealed that adoptive parents re…
Contributing Factors of Adult Adoptees’ Identity Work and Self-Esteem
Drawing from family communication patterns (FCP) theory and the communication-based conceptual model of adoptive identity work (Colaner & Soliz, 2015), we investigated the ways that families’ adoption-focused communication and general communication environment predict identity work and self-esteem in adult adoptees (n = 143). Specifically, we tested the assumption that FCP (i.e., conversation and conformity orientation) serve as a backdrop for ad…
Discursively Constructing a Family Identity After an Autism Diagnosis
The present study addressed the question: How are families communicating to construct a family identity in the face of a child's autism diagnosis? Interviews with 19 parents of children, teens, and adults with mild, moderate, and severe autism highlighted the discursive construction of family identity. Findings reveal that families construct an internal family identity that is marked by unified usage of the name "autism," emotive and mundane dail…
She chose us to be your parents
Guided by narrative theorizing, the current study investigated the content and process of telling adoption entrance narratives (AENs)-or the story of how the child was born, placed for adoption, and integrated into their family-in open adoptive families. Thematic analysis of 165 adoptive parents' (mostly mothers) AENs revealed six emergent themes: birth parents as family, chosen parents, forever, rescue, fate, and adoption makes us family. Struct…
Communicatively Managing Religious Identity Difference in Parent-Child Relationships
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-specifi…
Measuring Adoptive Identity
Guided by Erikson's as well as Grotevant and colleagues’ identity theorizing, three studies were conducted to assess the validity and reliability of the Adoptive Identity Work Scale (AIWS), a self-report measure of the identity work contributing to one's adoptive identity. Adult adoptees were solicited in a series of surveys (study 1: N = 196; study 2: N = 119; study 3: N = 217) to complete existing measures of adoptive identity and well-being as…
What Do You Say to Your Mother When Your Mother's Standing Beside You?” Birth and Adoptive Family Contributions to Adoptive Identity via Relational Identity and Relational–Relational Identity Gaps
Grounded in the communication theory of identity, the present study explores how adoptive identity—an individual's understanding of what it means to be an adopted person—is influenced by the relational layer of his or her adoptive and birth family relationships. Seven focus group interviews were conducted in which participants were prompted to engage in a dialog about their experiences as an adopted individual. Analyses revealed that adoptees' re…
Finding Female Fulfillment
Forever Kind of Wondering”
This study explores the ways in which adoptees experience and manage uncertainty about their adoptive status. Grounded in the interpretive paradigm, the researchers conducted interviews with 25 adopted adults. We determined that the adoptees in this study experienced uncertainty about what their adoption means, details about their birth parents, and their adoptive parents' feelings about the birth parents. Individuals we interviewed were unmotiva…
The Baby Blanket or the Briefcase
The Effect of Egalitarian and Complementarian Gender Role Attitudes on Career Aspirations in Evangelical Female Undergraduate College Students
This research investigated the effect of two opposite religious gender role attitudes (Complementarianism and Egalitarianism) on the career aspirations of female college students at an Evangelical Christian university in the Midwest. A survey measuring Egalitarianism / Complementarianism gender role ideology and career aspirations was distributed to a random sample of 400 students of which 271 participants responded. Results indicated a statistic…
Political difference and polarization in the family
This study joins the relatively modest literature examining the effects of political disagreement in the family. We consider the effects of communication accommodation on shared family identity in the context political disagreement. To do this, we utilize survey responses from a quota-stratified sample of participants in an online panel ( N = 833) taken immediately after the contentious 2016 presidential election. We find that more disagreement a…
Expanding the conceptual and empirical boundaries of family communication patterns
Family communication patterns theory (FCPT) explores how family members communicate to create a shared social reality via conversation and conformity orientations. Recently, scholars have noted that the current conceptualization and operationalization of conformity orientation is unnecessarily narrow in scope by representing conformity as controlling and repressive, rather than as cultivating homogenous attitudes, beliefs, and values among family…
What Do You Say to Your Mother When Your Mother's Standing Beside You?” Birth and Adoptive Family Contributions to Adoptive Identity via Relational Identity and Relational–Relational Identity Gaps
Grounded in the communication theory of identity, the present study explores how adoptive identity—an individual's understanding of what it means to be an adopted person—is influenced by the relational layer of his or her adoptive and birth family relationships. Seven focus group interviews were conducted in which participants were prompted to engage in a dialog about their experiences as an adopted individual. Analyses revealed that adoptees' re…
She chose us to be your parents
Guided by narrative theorizing, the current study investigated the content and process of telling adoption entrance narratives (AENs)-or the story of how the child was born, placed for adoption, and integrated into their family-in open adoptive families. Thematic analysis of 165 adoptive parents' (mostly mothers) AENs revealed six emergent themes: birth parents as family, chosen parents, forever, rescue, fate, and adoption makes us family. Struct…
Communicatively Managing Religious Identity Difference in Parent-Child Relationships
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-specifi…
The Baby Blanket or the Briefcase
Forever Kind of Wondering”
This study explores the ways in which adoptees experience and manage uncertainty about their adoptive status. Grounded in the interpretive paradigm, the researchers conducted interviews with 25 adopted adults. We determined that the adoptees in this study experienced uncertainty about what their adoption means, details about their birth parents, and their adoptive parents' feelings about the birth parents. Individuals we interviewed were unmotiva…
This Is Not the Hill to Die on. Even if We Literally Could Die on This Hill”
As information about the public health risks surrounding COVID-19 continues to shift over time, families communicate to navigate this ongoing uncertainty. For example, families must interpret inconsistent media and public health messages about COVID-19, which may in turn have implications for health risk behavior. Adding to this complexity, household structures and routines are adapting in response to COVID-19. Adult family members in some famili…
Discursively Constructing a Family Identity After an Autism Diagnosis
The present study addressed the question: How are families communicating to construct a family identity in the face of a child's autism diagnosis? Interviews with 19 parents of children, teens, and adults with mild, moderate, and severe autism highlighted the discursive construction of family identity. Findings reveal that families construct an internal family identity that is marked by unified usage of the name "autism," emotive and mundane dail…
Becoming a Transracial Family
Guided by intergroup and discourse dependence theorizing, the present study explored how divergent identities are communicatively negotiated in transracial adoptive families. Specifically, we examined how adoptive parents’ understandings of their child’s race and culture changed after adopting transracially and how adoptive parents navigated racial and cultural differences through talk. Results from 21 interviews revealed that adoptive parents re…
Contributing Factors of Adult Adoptees’ Identity Work and Self-Esteem
Drawing from family communication patterns (FCP) theory and the communication-based conceptual model of adoptive identity work (Colaner & Soliz, 2015), we investigated the ways that families’ adoption-focused communication and general communication environment predict identity work and self-esteem in adult adoptees (n = 143). Specifically, we tested the assumption that FCP (i.e., conversation and conformity orientation) serve as a backdrop for ad…
Communicatively Constructing Birth Family Relationships in Open Adoptive Families
Open adoption (i.e., involving ongoing communication between birth and adoptive families) has become the predominant form of private domestic adoption. As such, an understanding of the communicative structures that create and sustain these families is needed. Grounded in discourse dependent family theorizing, we explored open adoptive parents’ (n = 298) construction of the birth family relationship through naming and connecting. Thematic analysis…
The stakes are so high and it's happening so fast
During the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, families must communicate to assess and avoid risk. Given the specific threat of COVID-19 to individuals of advanced age, a crisis of this nature may trigger a role reversal for parents and adult children in the family wherein adult children lend emotional and instrumental support to their parents while suppressing their own needs. To understand if and how the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to …
Is a dyadic stressor experienced as equally distressing by both partners? The case of perceived fertility problems
Using data from a population survey, this article explores whether perceptions of having a fertility problem among 926 U.S. couples in heterosexual relationships (women aged 25-45 and male partners) are associated with distress. Most couples did not perceive a fertility problem (58%). In almost a third (30%) of the couples, only women perceived a fertility problem; in 4%, only the men; and in nearly a fifth (19%), both perceived a problem. Adjust…
Adoption, Communication, and Family Networks
This special issue of the Journal of Family Communication highlights the role of communication processes in adoption placements. Six original, peer-reviewed, empirical articles comprise this special issue. Together, these articles represent cutting-edge research on the formative dialogue that sustains adoption kinship networks. Each article is theoretically driven and analytically rich, offering important advancements for adoption and communicati…
The effects of discrimination and psychological distress on U.S. Latino/a young adults’ relational uncertainty and relationship instability
Overall results suggest that racial/ethnic discrimination is associated with romantic relationship instability through its associations with psychological distress and uncertainty about the future of a relationship. Prior research demonstrates the resilience of Latino/a communities, and our findings reinforce the need for policies and clinical resources that reduce discrimination and support mental health and relationships. (PsycInfo Database Rec…
Measuring Adoptive Identity
Guided by Erikson's as well as Grotevant and colleagues’ identity theorizing, three studies were conducted to assess the validity and reliability of the Adoptive Identity Work Scale (AIWS), a self-report measure of the identity work contributing to one's adoptive identity. Adult adoptees were solicited in a series of surveys (study 1: N = 196; study 2: N = 119; study 3: N = 217) to complete existing measures of adoptive identity and well-being as…
Family Communication Patterns and Communication (non)accommodation Among Chinese Christian Migrants in Interfaith Families
Communicatively Constructing Godparenthood
Although the godparent-godchild relationship is a centuries-old practice that creates a meaningful intergenerational bond, research on godparenthood is in its infancy. The current study examined godparent relational maintenance behaviors to provide an introductory glimpse into this relationship. Godchildren (N= 151) reported on their godparents’ relational maintenance behaviors. Assurances, social networks, and self-disclosure emerged as the most…
Finding Female Fulfillment
The Effect of Egalitarian and Complementarian Gender Role Attitudes on Career Aspirations in Evangelical Female Undergraduate College Students
This research investigated the effect of two opposite religious gender role attitudes (Complementarianism and Egalitarianism) on the career aspirations of female college students at an Evangelical Christian university in the Midwest. A survey measuring Egalitarianism / Complementarianism gender role ideology and career aspirations was distributed to a random sample of 400 students of which 271 participants responded. Results indicated a statistic…
The Baby Blanket or the Briefcase
Forever Kind of Wondering”
This study explores the ways in which adoptees experience and manage uncertainty about their adoptive status. Grounded in the interpretive paradigm, the researchers conducted interviews with 25 adopted adults. We determined that the adoptees in this study experienced uncertainty about what their adoption means, details about their birth parents, and their adoptive parents' feelings about the birth parents. Individuals we interviewed were unmotiva…
Finding Female Fulfillment
Communicatively Managing Religious Identity Difference in Parent-Child Relationships
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-specifi…
Measuring Adoptive Identity
Guided by Erikson's as well as Grotevant and colleagues’ identity theorizing, three studies were conducted to assess the validity and reliability of the Adoptive Identity Work Scale (AIWS), a self-report measure of the identity work contributing to one's adoptive identity. Adult adoptees were solicited in a series of surveys (study 1: N = 196; study 2: N = 119; study 3: N = 217) to complete existing measures of adoptive identity and well-being as…
What Do You Say to Your Mother When Your Mother's Standing Beside You?” Birth and Adoptive Family Contributions to Adoptive Identity via Relational Identity and Relational–Relational Identity Gaps
Grounded in the communication theory of identity, the present study explores how adoptive identity—an individual's understanding of what it means to be an adopted person—is influenced by the relational layer of his or her adoptive and birth family relationships. Seven focus group interviews were conducted in which participants were prompted to engage in a dialog about their experiences as an adopted individual. Analyses revealed that adoptees' re…
Contributing Factors of Adult Adoptees’ Identity Work and Self-Esteem
Drawing from family communication patterns (FCP) theory and the communication-based conceptual model of adoptive identity work (Colaner & Soliz, 2015), we investigated the ways that families’ adoption-focused communication and general communication environment predict identity work and self-esteem in adult adoptees (n = 143). Specifically, we tested the assumption that FCP (i.e., conversation and conformity orientation) serve as a backdrop for ad…
Discursively Constructing a Family Identity After an Autism Diagnosis
The present study addressed the question: How are families communicating to construct a family identity in the face of a child's autism diagnosis? Interviews with 19 parents of children, teens, and adults with mild, moderate, and severe autism highlighted the discursive construction of family identity. Findings reveal that families construct an internal family identity that is marked by unified usage of the name "autism," emotive and mundane dail…
She chose us to be your parents
Guided by narrative theorizing, the current study investigated the content and process of telling adoption entrance narratives (AENs)-or the story of how the child was born, placed for adoption, and integrated into their family-in open adoptive families. Thematic analysis of 165 adoptive parents' (mostly mothers) AENs revealed six emergent themes: birth parents as family, chosen parents, forever, rescue, fate, and adoption makes us family. Struct…
Becoming a Transracial Family
Guided by intergroup and discourse dependence theorizing, the present study explored how divergent identities are communicatively negotiated in transracial adoptive families. Specifically, we examined how adoptive parents’ understandings of their child’s race and culture changed after adopting transracially and how adoptive parents navigated racial and cultural differences through talk. Results from 21 interviews revealed that adoptive parents re…
Communicatively Constructing Birth Family Relationships in Open Adoptive Families
Open adoption (i.e., involving ongoing communication between birth and adoptive families) has become the predominant form of private domestic adoption. As such, an understanding of the communicative structures that create and sustain these families is needed. Grounded in discourse dependent family theorizing, we explored open adoptive parents’ (n = 298) construction of the birth family relationship through naming and connecting. Thematic analysis…
Expanding the conceptual and empirical boundaries of family communication patterns
Family communication patterns theory (FCPT) explores how family members communicate to create a shared social reality via conversation and conformity orientations. Recently, scholars have noted that the current conceptualization and operationalization of conformity orientation is unnecessarily narrow in scope by representing conformity as controlling and repressive, rather than as cultivating homogenous attitudes, beliefs, and values among family…
Communicatively Constructing Godparenthood
Although the godparent-godchild relationship is a centuries-old practice that creates a meaningful intergenerational bond, research on godparenthood is in its infancy. The current study examined godparent relational maintenance behaviors to provide an introductory glimpse into this relationship. Godchildren (N= 151) reported on their godparents’ relational maintenance behaviors. Assurances, social networks, and self-disclosure emerged as the most…
This Is Not the Hill to Die on. Even if We Literally Could Die on This Hill”
As information about the public health risks surrounding COVID-19 continues to shift over time, families communicate to navigate this ongoing uncertainty. For example, families must interpret inconsistent media and public health messages about COVID-19, which may in turn have implications for health risk behavior. Adding to this complexity, household structures and routines are adapting in response to COVID-19. Adult family members in some famili…
Is a dyadic stressor experienced as equally distressing by both partners? The case of perceived fertility problems
Using data from a population survey, this article explores whether perceptions of having a fertility problem among 926 U.S. couples in heterosexual relationships (women aged 25-45 and male partners) are associated with distress. Most couples did not perceive a fertility problem (58%). In almost a third (30%) of the couples, only women perceived a fertility problem; in 4%, only the men; and in nearly a fifth (19%), both perceived a problem. Adjust…
Political difference and polarization in the family
This study joins the relatively modest literature examining the effects of political disagreement in the family. We consider the effects of communication accommodation on shared family identity in the context political disagreement. To do this, we utilize survey responses from a quota-stratified sample of participants in an online panel ( N = 833) taken immediately after the contentious 2016 presidential election. We find that more disagreement a…
Communication Privacy Management in Open Adoption Relationships
Open adoption relationships are rife with privacy dilemmas and fuzzy boundaries, which require ongoing coordination of private disclosures as a result. The present study employed communication privacy management (CPM) theory to examine adoptive parents’ ( N = 354) private disclosures with the birth family across in-person and mediated (i.e., texting and social media) contexts. SEM analysis revealed that adoptive families who were more private and…
Adoption, Communication, and Family Networks
This special issue of the Journal of Family Communication highlights the role of communication processes in adoption placements. Six original, peer-reviewed, empirical articles comprise this special issue. Together, these articles represent cutting-edge research on the formative dialogue that sustains adoption kinship networks. Each article is theoretically driven and analytically rich, offering important advancements for adoption and communicati…
The effects of discrimination and psychological distress on U.S. Latino/a young adults’ relational uncertainty and relationship instability
Overall results suggest that racial/ethnic discrimination is associated with romantic relationship instability through its associations with psychological distress and uncertainty about the future of a relationship. Prior research demonstrates the resilience of Latino/a communities, and our findings reinforce the need for policies and clinical resources that reduce discrimination and support mental health and relationships. (PsycInfo Database Rec…
The stakes are so high and it's happening so fast
During the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, families must communicate to assess and avoid risk. Given the specific threat of COVID-19 to individuals of advanced age, a crisis of this nature may trigger a role reversal for parents and adult children in the family wherein adult children lend emotional and instrumental support to their parents while suppressing their own needs. To understand if and how the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to …
The intergenerational transmission of relationship instability
This study extends prior research on the intergenerational transmission of relationship instability by examining parents' history of on‐off relationships as a predictor of emerging adults' own cycling (i.e., breaking up and renewing with the same romantic partner). Data were collected at a large mid‐western university from 702 emerging adults (18–25 years old). Multinomial logistic regression was used to predict the likelihood that participants h…
Children are (Still) Communicators Too
8662) revealed that child representation remains below 4%, with the majority of these publications utilizing adolescent rather than school-age and younger samples. Findings in the current study underscore the importance of valuing children's communication processes. We present a renewed call for children's communication research by arguing for the need to (1) address discipline barriers to child-focused research, (2) pay attention to younger chil…
Family Communication Patterns and Communication (non)accommodation Among Chinese Christian Migrants in Interfaith Families
Psychology (22 works) · Social Psychology (18 works) · Social Psychology (15 works) · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics (12 works) · Developmental psychology (12 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Child Welfare and Adoption (9 works) · Family Dynamics and Relationships (8 works) · Identity (music (8 works) · Political science (7 works)