R Amanda Cooper
Biographic Data
| ID | 767956 |
|---|---|
| NAME | R Amanda Cooper |
| GIVEN NAMES | R Amanda |
| FAMILY NAME | Cooper |
| SIGNATURE | COOPER R A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Connecticut |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8771-6842 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 12 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Consistency in Parental Reports of Overparenting Across Four Countries
The primary aim of this study was to test cross-country differences in overparenting with secondary aims to test for subcultural differences within the United States, and to test differential patterns of association between overparenting and related motivational constructs (i.e., parental anxiety and parental achievement motivation) across countries. Participants were 1,020 parents from China, South Korea, the United States, and the United Kingdo…
Exploring Older Adults’ Use of AI Voice Assistants Through the Lens of Self-Determination Theory
Aging often reduces opportunities for everyday interaction and instrumental support, raising questions about the potential role of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in later-life well-being. This study examined how AI voice assistants may fulfill, or fall short of, older adults' basic psychological needs through the lens of self-determination theory (SDT). Eighteen U.S.-based community-dwelling older adults (ages 66-85) participated in a …
Coping with Loss in Caregiving
Applying the dual-process model of coping with bereavement, we examined how dementia family caregivers and parents of medically complex children (MCC) experience and cope with loss on a daily basis. Integrating caregiving experiences at both ends of the lifespan revealed largely similar experiences of loss in caregiving as well as nuanced differences in grieving and coping. Using interview data from 26 dementia family caregivers and 26 MCC caregi…
Examining the Effects of Viewing Positive Aging TikTok Videos on Aging Outcomes and Attitudes Among Young, Middle-Aged, and Older Women
This experiment tests the communicative ecology model of successful aging (CEMSA) to determine how viewing positive aging TikTok videos impacts aging outcomes for young ( n = 306), middle-aged ( n = 225), and older ( n = 233) women. We also extend the CEMSA to include ageism and positive attitudes toward older adults. Watching positive aging TikTok videos had an indirect effect on aging efficacy through positive aging affect for all age groups. T…
‘Prison alone does not define me’
PositiveAging
The communication ecology model of successful aging (CEMSA) proposes that the messages individuals receive from the social environment, and their own communication about aging, shape the communication ecology of aging, which in turn influences the degree to which individuals experience successful aging. This content analysis study provides insight into the communication ecology of aging by examining the messages about aging forwarded by positive …
Bolstering Military Couple Relational Resilience Through Savoring
Finding the Communication Sweet Spot
Extending communicated sense-making theorizing to social groups
Exiting the totalistic and intensively focused structure of missionary service prompts sense-making as missionaries return and adapt to life at home. Drawing from organizational, religious, and interpersonal communication literature, we use the communicated sense-making model to explore how 26 Christian missionaries made sense of their experiences and post-missionary identity. Our findings suggest that missionaries used three sense-making devices…
The social process linking neighborhood social fragmentation and individual psychological distress
The current study assessed the social process linking neighborhood social fragmentation with individual psychological distress. Social fragmentation was operationalized as a perception of limited social cohesion within a neighborhood. Data were collected from two waves in the United Kingdom (T1 N = 705; T2 N = 534). Participants completed an online survey with measures of perceived social cohesion, social support, perceived social isolation at Ti…
Social Isolation Mediates the Effects of Negative Emotionality and Resilience on Drinking to Cope and Drinking Alone
Objective: The purpose of this research was to test an extension of the incentive motivation model of alcohol by examining effects of personality traits on drinking motives and contexts, as mediated by social isolation. Methods: Participants were 1269 adults who resided in the United States (n = 618) or United Kingdom (n = 651) and completed an online questionnaire measuring the traits of negative emotionality and resilience, along with social is…
Humanizing Dementia
Patronizing speech and dehumanization both have negative impacts on the health and wellbeing of the recipients of these behaviors. This experiment applied Fiske's stereotype content model, Haslam's dual model of dehumanization, and Hummert's model of patronizing speech to assess the effects of warmth- and competence-enhancing messages about a person with dementia on perceptions of humanness and patronizing speech toward people with dementia. Resu…
Pre-onset relational investments and dementia caregiver wellbeing
Dementia alters relationships between family caregivers and their relatives living with dementia. Drawing from the theory of resilience and relational load (TRRL) and the investment model, this study assesses the influence of dementia caregivers' pre-onset relational investments in these relationships (relationship maintenance and communal orientation) on their individual and relational wellbeing (depression, personal growth, love/closeness). Two…
Acknowledging dementia as an actor in the relationship
Despite the incredible challenges of caring for a family member with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia, many dementia family caregivers exhibit resilience. Framed by the communication theory of resilience, this study examines how resilience processes unfold within dementia caregivers' relationships with their family member, and dementia caregivers' experiences of resilience. Analysis of 27 interviews with adult children and spousal caregi…
Neighborhood Disadvantage and Mental Health
According to the life stress model, stressful circumstances occur in the context of social, psychological, and environmental features that can function as either resources or aggravating factors, each of which are associated with well-being. This research was designed to test indirect effects of living in disadvantaged neighborhoods on mental health, through reduced social support and increased negative emotionality. This model was tested with da…
What’s My Purpose Now
This study investigates how first-time religious missionaries use communication to readapt to life outside the mission field after returning home. The findings suggest that returning missionaries used communication to facilitate the reentry. In-depth qualitative interviews with 14 Christian missionaries revealed three common experiences: reconciling the missionary identity, reentering the social context, and transitioning to the post-missionary l…
Unique Effects of Psychological Distress in Victimization and Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence
Introduction: Intimate partner violence (IPV) reliably co-occurs with psychological distress. However, understanding the precise nature of the association between these two classes of variables, as potential cause or effect, is complicated by the fact that victimization of IPV is not often studied controlling for simultaneous perpetration, and vice versa. It is therefore important to control for one form of IPV when testing predictors of the othe…
Transferable Resilience Practices
This study uses the communication theory of resilience as a sensitizing framework to explore how U.S. military spouses transferred resilience practices acquired during military deployment to early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from 27 in-depth interviews with U.S. military spouses showed that the military experience shaped participants’ appraisal of the pandemic and helped them to discursively enact resilience through previously developed…
It Just Shifted Everything in Our Family Dynamic
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a debilitating progressive illness that wreaks havoc on the person with Alzheimer’s (PWA) and their family. AD impairs the PWA’s cognitive, communicative, and bodily functioning, and family members are challenged to maintain ongoing but significantly altered relationships with the PWA. We aimed to understand how the actions of family members of a PWA served to recalibrate the family system. Among the changes that recal…
When goodbyes matter
An online survey of 528 people who lost someone close to them in the last 5 years was used to test associations between having final conversations (FCs) and depression. The direct effect was nonsignificant, but there were two significant moderation effects. Time since bereavement moderated the FC-depression relationship; there was a negative relationship between FCs and depression shortly following bereavement, but no relationship after more time…
Caregiving spouses' experiences of relational uncertainty and partner influence in the prolonged relational transition of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias
Alzheimer's disease and related dementias cause gradual cognitive and communicative decline over a period of several years creating a prolonged transitional period in the lives of people with the disease and their spouse. Relational turbulence theory served as a lens to examine 18 in-depth interviews with caregiving spouses regarding their experiences of relational uncertainty, and interference and facilitation from their partner throughout this …
“There’s Always Going to Be Uncertainty”
Framed by uncertainty management theory, the present study explores the uncertainty issues and management practices of undergraduate student parents. Results from 40 narrative interviews reveal seven sources of uncertainty, eight management practices, and two uncertainty trade-offs. Findings reveal that having two interrelated identities (student and parent) not only exacerbate some uncertainties but create completely new ones. This intersectiona…
“That's when the relationship shifted”
This study investigated the relational turning points experienced by caregiving spouses across the trajectory of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Data were collected using a modified version of the retrospective interviewing technique which facilitated close analysis of relational turning points and the role of communication in shaping and managing these turning points. Caregiving spouses described nine relational turning points across …
I Am a Caregiver”
The all-consuming role and responsibilities of providing care to an aging parent or spouse create identity disruption and stress. However, this stress may be resolved as family caregivers integrate the role of caregiver into their identity and construct an aspect of their identity around providing care (i.e., caregiver identity). Rooted in the retrospective heuristic of communicated narrative sense-making theory (CNSM), this paper investigates th…
Caregiving spouses' experiences of relational uncertainty and partner influence in the prolonged relational transition of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias
Alzheimer's disease and related dementias cause gradual cognitive and communicative decline over a period of several years creating a prolonged transitional period in the lives of people with the disease and their spouse. Relational turbulence theory served as a lens to examine 18 in-depth interviews with caregiving spouses regarding their experiences of relational uncertainty, and interference and facilitation from their partner throughout this …
Acknowledging dementia as an actor in the relationship
Despite the incredible challenges of caring for a family member with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia, many dementia family caregivers exhibit resilience. Framed by the communication theory of resilience, this study examines how resilience processes unfold within dementia caregivers' relationships with their family member, and dementia caregivers' experiences of resilience. Analysis of 27 interviews with adult children and spousal caregi…
I Am a Caregiver”
The all-consuming role and responsibilities of providing care to an aging parent or spouse create identity disruption and stress. However, this stress may be resolved as family caregivers integrate the role of caregiver into their identity and construct an aspect of their identity around providing care (i.e., caregiver identity). Rooted in the retrospective heuristic of communicated narrative sense-making theory (CNSM), this paper investigates th…
The social process linking neighborhood social fragmentation and individual psychological distress
The current study assessed the social process linking neighborhood social fragmentation with individual psychological distress. Social fragmentation was operationalized as a perception of limited social cohesion within a neighborhood. Data were collected from two waves in the United Kingdom (T1 N = 705; T2 N = 534). Participants completed an online survey with measures of perceived social cohesion, social support, perceived social isolation at Ti…
Transferable Resilience Practices
This study uses the communication theory of resilience as a sensitizing framework to explore how U.S. military spouses transferred resilience practices acquired during military deployment to early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from 27 in-depth interviews with U.S. military spouses showed that the military experience shaped participants’ appraisal of the pandemic and helped them to discursively enact resilience through previously developed…
“There’s Always Going to Be Uncertainty”
Framed by uncertainty management theory, the present study explores the uncertainty issues and management practices of undergraduate student parents. Results from 40 narrative interviews reveal seven sources of uncertainty, eight management practices, and two uncertainty trade-offs. Findings reveal that having two interrelated identities (student and parent) not only exacerbate some uncertainties but create completely new ones. This intersectiona…
“That's when the relationship shifted”
This study investigated the relational turning points experienced by caregiving spouses across the trajectory of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Data were collected using a modified version of the retrospective interviewing technique which facilitated close analysis of relational turning points and the role of communication in shaping and managing these turning points. Caregiving spouses described nine relational turning points across …
I Am a Caregiver”
The all-consuming role and responsibilities of providing care to an aging parent or spouse create identity disruption and stress. However, this stress may be resolved as family caregivers integrate the role of caregiver into their identity and construct an aspect of their identity around providing care (i.e., caregiver identity). Rooted in the retrospective heuristic of communicated narrative sense-making theory (CNSM), this paper investigates th…
Neighborhood Disadvantage and Mental Health
According to the life stress model, stressful circumstances occur in the context of social, psychological, and environmental features that can function as either resources or aggravating factors, each of which are associated with well-being. This research was designed to test indirect effects of living in disadvantaged neighborhoods on mental health, through reduced social support and increased negative emotionality. This model was tested with da…
What’s My Purpose Now
This study investigates how first-time religious missionaries use communication to readapt to life outside the mission field after returning home. The findings suggest that returning missionaries used communication to facilitate the reentry. In-depth qualitative interviews with 14 Christian missionaries revealed three common experiences: reconciling the missionary identity, reentering the social context, and transitioning to the post-missionary l…
Unique Effects of Psychological Distress in Victimization and Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence
Introduction: Intimate partner violence (IPV) reliably co-occurs with psychological distress. However, understanding the precise nature of the association between these two classes of variables, as potential cause or effect, is complicated by the fact that victimization of IPV is not often studied controlling for simultaneous perpetration, and vice versa. It is therefore important to control for one form of IPV when testing predictors of the othe…
Transferable Resilience Practices
This study uses the communication theory of resilience as a sensitizing framework to explore how U.S. military spouses transferred resilience practices acquired during military deployment to early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from 27 in-depth interviews with U.S. military spouses showed that the military experience shaped participants’ appraisal of the pandemic and helped them to discursively enact resilience through previously developed…
It Just Shifted Everything in Our Family Dynamic
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a debilitating progressive illness that wreaks havoc on the person with Alzheimer’s (PWA) and their family. AD impairs the PWA’s cognitive, communicative, and bodily functioning, and family members are challenged to maintain ongoing but significantly altered relationships with the PWA. We aimed to understand how the actions of family members of a PWA served to recalibrate the family system. Among the changes that recal…
When goodbyes matter
An online survey of 528 people who lost someone close to them in the last 5 years was used to test associations between having final conversations (FCs) and depression. The direct effect was nonsignificant, but there were two significant moderation effects. Time since bereavement moderated the FC-depression relationship; there was a negative relationship between FCs and depression shortly following bereavement, but no relationship after more time…
Caregiving spouses' experiences of relational uncertainty and partner influence in the prolonged relational transition of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias
Alzheimer's disease and related dementias cause gradual cognitive and communicative decline over a period of several years creating a prolonged transitional period in the lives of people with the disease and their spouse. Relational turbulence theory served as a lens to examine 18 in-depth interviews with caregiving spouses regarding their experiences of relational uncertainty, and interference and facilitation from their partner throughout this …
Social Isolation Mediates the Effects of Negative Emotionality and Resilience on Drinking to Cope and Drinking Alone
Objective: The purpose of this research was to test an extension of the incentive motivation model of alcohol by examining effects of personality traits on drinking motives and contexts, as mediated by social isolation. Methods: Participants were 1269 adults who resided in the United States (n = 618) or United Kingdom (n = 651) and completed an online questionnaire measuring the traits of negative emotionality and resilience, along with social is…
Humanizing Dementia
Patronizing speech and dehumanization both have negative impacts on the health and wellbeing of the recipients of these behaviors. This experiment applied Fiske's stereotype content model, Haslam's dual model of dehumanization, and Hummert's model of patronizing speech to assess the effects of warmth- and competence-enhancing messages about a person with dementia on perceptions of humanness and patronizing speech toward people with dementia. Resu…
Pre-onset relational investments and dementia caregiver wellbeing
Dementia alters relationships between family caregivers and their relatives living with dementia. Drawing from the theory of resilience and relational load (TRRL) and the investment model, this study assesses the influence of dementia caregivers' pre-onset relational investments in these relationships (relationship maintenance and communal orientation) on their individual and relational wellbeing (depression, personal growth, love/closeness). Two…
Acknowledging dementia as an actor in the relationship
Despite the incredible challenges of caring for a family member with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia, many dementia family caregivers exhibit resilience. Framed by the communication theory of resilience, this study examines how resilience processes unfold within dementia caregivers' relationships with their family member, and dementia caregivers' experiences of resilience. Analysis of 27 interviews with adult children and spousal caregi…
PositiveAging
The communication ecology model of successful aging (CEMSA) proposes that the messages individuals receive from the social environment, and their own communication about aging, shape the communication ecology of aging, which in turn influences the degree to which individuals experience successful aging. This content analysis study provides insight into the communication ecology of aging by examining the messages about aging forwarded by positive …
Bolstering Military Couple Relational Resilience Through Savoring
Finding the Communication Sweet Spot
Extending communicated sense-making theorizing to social groups
Exiting the totalistic and intensively focused structure of missionary service prompts sense-making as missionaries return and adapt to life at home. Drawing from organizational, religious, and interpersonal communication literature, we use the communicated sense-making model to explore how 26 Christian missionaries made sense of their experiences and post-missionary identity. Our findings suggest that missionaries used three sense-making devices…
The social process linking neighborhood social fragmentation and individual psychological distress
The current study assessed the social process linking neighborhood social fragmentation with individual psychological distress. Social fragmentation was operationalized as a perception of limited social cohesion within a neighborhood. Data were collected from two waves in the United Kingdom (T1 N = 705; T2 N = 534). Participants completed an online survey with measures of perceived social cohesion, social support, perceived social isolation at Ti…
Consistency in Parental Reports of Overparenting Across Four Countries
The primary aim of this study was to test cross-country differences in overparenting with secondary aims to test for subcultural differences within the United States, and to test differential patterns of association between overparenting and related motivational constructs (i.e., parental anxiety and parental achievement motivation) across countries. Participants were 1,020 parents from China, South Korea, the United States, and the United Kingdo…
Exploring Older Adults’ Use of AI Voice Assistants Through the Lens of Self-Determination Theory
Aging often reduces opportunities for everyday interaction and instrumental support, raising questions about the potential role of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in later-life well-being. This study examined how AI voice assistants may fulfill, or fall short of, older adults' basic psychological needs through the lens of self-determination theory (SDT). Eighteen U.S.-based community-dwelling older adults (ages 66-85) participated in a …
Coping with Loss in Caregiving
Applying the dual-process model of coping with bereavement, we examined how dementia family caregivers and parents of medically complex children (MCC) experience and cope with loss on a daily basis. Integrating caregiving experiences at both ends of the lifespan revealed largely similar experiences of loss in caregiving as well as nuanced differences in grieving and coping. Using interview data from 26 dementia family caregivers and 26 MCC caregi…
Examining the Effects of Viewing Positive Aging TikTok Videos on Aging Outcomes and Attitudes Among Young, Middle-Aged, and Older Women
This experiment tests the communicative ecology model of successful aging (CEMSA) to determine how viewing positive aging TikTok videos impacts aging outcomes for young ( n = 306), middle-aged ( n = 225), and older ( n = 233) women. We also extend the CEMSA to include ageism and positive attitudes toward older adults. Watching positive aging TikTok videos had an indirect effect on aging efficacy through positive aging affect for all age groups. T…
‘Prison alone does not define me’
Psychology (18 works) · Medicine (14 works) · Social Psychology (11 works) · Developmental psychology (8 works) · Disease (7 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Clinical Psychology (6 works) · Dementia (6 works) · Family Support in Illness (5 works)