Laura Stafford
Biographic Data
| ID | 81741 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Laura Stafford |
| GIVEN NAMES | Laura |
| FAMILY NAME | Stafford |
| SIGNATURE | STAFFORD L |
| AFFILIATIONS | The Ohio State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1485-4803 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 42 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 789 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 42 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1984 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 15 |
A systematic review of relationship maintenance: Reflecting back and looking to the future
Relationship maintenance processes include a wide range of activities and cognitions that romantic partners engage in to sustain or enhance their relationships. In this article, we review literature from the past two decades (2002–2021). We focus on key definitional and conceptual issues in the study of relational maintenance. Guided by a lens of intersectionality, we then perform a theoretically‐driven review of the empirical articles published …
The role of individual‐ and interactive‐level relationship maintenance on married couples' commitment
The interaction of maintenance processes between partners constitutes a complex context, which can be categorized into individual‐ and interactive‐level relationship maintenance processes. Individual‐level maintenance processes refer to both partners' relationship maintenance enactment and perception of partners' relationship maintenance. Interactive‐level relationship maintenance processes include similarity, accuracy, and projection. This study…
Counter-Hegemonic Narratives of White Weddings: Brides Responses to Wedding Disruptions During the Covid-19 Pandemic
Dominant cultural discourses dictate what the ideal wedding should look like, and these discourses often center around the white wedding. White weddings typically include a bride in a white dress, a large reception, and a honeymoon. Given that western culture privileges the white wedding, weddings that deviate from this norm are sometimes delegitimatized. We used Relational Dialectics Theory 2.0 to examine dominant discourses of weddings during C…
Emerging adults' preferred surnames: Reasons and social cognitive dispositions
Surname practices in the U.S. are believed to reflect and reinforce the enduring patriarchal nature of U.S. society. Yet, some women and men reject patriarchal expectations. Calls for research accounting for such individual variations have been made. We examine the role that dispositional differences play in preferences for and reasoning about marital surnames in a sample of U.S. heterosexual women and men. With an online survey, we examined 799 …
Engaged Women's Relationships, Weddings, and Mental Health During Covid-19
We examined the association between mental health and relationship and wedding factors among engaged women planning their weddings before and during Covid-19. Survey data from 715 non-Covid-19 and 427 Covid-19 participants revealed that Covid-19 participants experienced depression in greater proportion than non-Covid-19 participants. Wedding satisfaction and financial strain were stronger predictors of depression for Covid-19 than non-Covid-19 pa…
Exchange and Communal Strengths' Associations With Relational Characteristics and Forgiveness
Clark and Mills (2012) proposed that communal norms characterize 'healthy marriages,' whereas exchange norms indicate 'troubled' ones. Using the actor-partner interdependence model, we consider this proposal. Heterosexual married partners' exchange and communal strength are examined with several relational features including trust, commitment, relational satisfaction, and control mutuality, as well as partner-specific tendencies toward forgivenes…
It’s the Best Day of Your Life: Dominant Discourses in Brides’ Wedding Planning
Cultural discourses surrounding weddings and wedding planning are commonly focused on the bride. Relational Dialectics Theory 2.0 is used to conduct a critical analysis of wedding planning discourses through a Critical Interpersonal and Family Communication (CIFC) lens. Contrapuntal analysis is used to analyze interview transcripts of women talking about planning their weddings. Dominant discourses include the idea of the wedding as the perfect d…
Communal strength, exchange orientation, equity, and relational maintenance
The purpose of this study was to explore communal strength (i.e., partner-specific communal orientation) and partner-specific exchange orientation, as well as equity, as predictors of relational maintenance. A sample of 309 heterosexual couples completed self-reports. Given the dyadic interdependence, the actor-partner independence model was used. Dyadic analyses were undertaken using structural equation modeling conducted in AMOS. Results indica…
An investigation of relational turbulence and depressive symptoms in newly married women
This study uses the relational turbulence model to examine depressive symptoms in newly married women. It reports data from a pre-/posttest study in which 152 women completed an online survey during their engagement and 6 months after their wedding. Nearly 12% of the women reported reliable and clinically meaningful increases in depressive symptoms after their wedding. Using panel data analysis, this study found that increases in self uncertainty…
Social Exchange Theory
A social exchange framework refers to any conceptual model or theoretical approach that focuses on exchange of resources (material or symbolic) between or among people. Social exchange theories expand concepts of economics to the notion of exchange to include all interpersonal experiences. Social exchange theories comprise falsifiable propositions: propositions can be found false. Thus, this group of theories is considered to be post-positivist. …
Blue Brides: Exploring Postnuptial Depressive Symptoms
We conducted in-depth interviews with 28 newly married women to explore the experience of postnuptial depressive symptoms. Nearly half of the participants indicated that they felt let down or depressed following their wedding, and some participants reported clinical levels of depression. We found several stark contrasts between the bluest and the happiest brides. Blue brides described feeling uncertain in their marriages, focused on self during w…
Marital Sanctity, Relationship Maintenance, and Marital Quality
It has been argued that individuals who consider their marriages as sacred are likely to put greater effort into protecting those marriages. As relationship maintenance behaviors have been defined as efforts enacted to maintain features such as marital satisfaction, it is possible that relational maintenance behaviors serve as a link between marital sanctity and marital satisfaction. A sample of 244 heterosexual married couples completed measures…
A Relational Approach to Religion and Spirituality in Marriage: The Role of Couples’ Religious Communication in Marital Satisfaction
Using a relational model of religion and spirituality in marriage, the role of individual relationship with God, couple's joint religious communication, and forgiveness were examined as predictors of marital satisfaction. Data from 342 heterosexual married couples were analyzed using an actor partner interdependence model and path analyses. Results indicate that one's individual relationship with God is important to marital quality indirectly as …
Sanctity of marriage and marital quality
Mahoney and colleagues' theorizing about the potential role of sanctity as a central feature of religion/spirituality is invoked to examine the relationships among sanctity of marriage, (un)forgiveness, sacrifice, and both positive and negative marital satisfaction. The study examined the perspectives of both members of 342 marital dyads using an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model and a multilevel path modeling. The results indicate that sanctit…
Measuring relationship maintenance behaviors: Critique and development of the revised relationship maintenance behavior scale
The most frequently utilized measures of relational maintenance (i.e., the five-factor relational maintenance strategies measure, or RMSM, and the revised seven-factor RMSM) suffer from fundamental measurement flaws. Therefore, this article describes a series of studies designed to identify weaknesses in these measures and offer an improvement - the Relational Maintenance Behavior Measure (RMBM). When sound item-construction practices are followe…
People Want—and Maintain—Fair Marriages: Reply to Ragsdale and Brandau—Brown
Following three studies that criticized our research on the link between equity and relational maintenance strategies (Ragsdale, 1996; Ragsdale & Brandau-Brown, 2004, 2005), we (2006) submitted an
People Want?and Maintain?Fair Marriages: Reply to Ragsdale and Brandau?Brown
Idealization, reunions, and stability in long-distance dating relationships
Two studies explore the seeming paradox reported in prior research on long-distance dating relationships (LDDRs): Despite limited interaction, LDDR partners evidence greater relational stability than partners in geographically close dating relationships (GCDRs). We investigate speculations that romantic idealization may be a key component in LDDR stability. Idealization (i.e., idealistic distortion, romantic love, relational reminiscence, perceiv…
Equity and Interdependence as Predictors of Relational Maintenance Strategies
This article continues a research program on relational maintenance strategies used in marriage. In particular, we explore how equity and satisfaction, defined in terms of interdependence theory, individually and jointly are predictive of self-reported maintenance strategies. The rationale for the study is based on previous programmatic efforts, as well as a critique of these efforts. Over 200 married couples completed measures of equity, satisfa…
When long-distance dating partners become geographically close
This study explored long-distance dating relationships' (LDDRs) transition to geographic proximity. About half of LDDR partners experience this transition, whereas the other half end their relationships during separation. Among reunited relationships, one-third terminate within 3 months of reunion. Participants' open-ended responses highlight changes associated with reunion, including the loss of autonomy; increased positive and negative knowledg…
Maintenance Behaviors in Same-Sex and Marital Relationships: A Matched Sample Comparison
This study is follow-up to Haas and Stafford’s (1998) initial exploration of communi-cative relationship maintenance behaviors in gay and lesbian relationships. This in-vestigation is an attempt to explore relationship maintenance behaviors of ongoing, same-sex relationships through direct comparison with those used in heterosexual marriages. Using a community-based sample, 30 married heterosexuals from a larger study on maintenance were matched …
Maintaining Long-Distance and Cross-Residential Relationships
This thought-provoking volume offers an innovative and intriguing approach to the study of long-distance relationships. Author Laura Stafford examines romantic long-distance relationships and then expands the conception of long-distance relationships to include other relational types. She summarizes literature across the social sciences on various types of long-distance relationships and extracts themes and patterns across the relational types. I…
Romantic and Parent-Child Relationships at a Distance
Cultural expectations in U.S. society dictate that communication should be frequent and face-to-face in order to sustain close relationships, romantic partners should live in geographic proximity, and married individuals and parents and young children should share a residence. Such conceptions about communication in and residential structures of close relationships immediately call into question how geographically separated individuals can mainta…
Married Individuals, Cohabiters, and Cohabiters Who Marry: A Longitudinal Study of Relational and Individual Well-Being
Given that many cohabiting couples marry, our interest was in the changes that may accompany this shift in terms of relational and individual well-being. In addition, a comparison among three relationship groups was undertaken: those who entered directly into marriage, those who cohabitated and then married, and those who are long-term cohabiters. Also, comparisons across time were conducted. Our data were drawn from the 1987-1988 and 1992-1994 N…
A Panel Study of the Associations Between Maintenance Strategies and Relational Characteristics
Resilience in marriage is tied to the manner in which people strategically maintain their relationships. The associations between perceptions of five relational maintenance strategies (positivity, openness, assurances, social networks, and sharing tasks) and three fundamental relationship characteristics (liking, commitment, and control mutuality) are examined concurrently and over time. At three points in time, each separated by a month, married…
Maintenance Strategies and Romantic Relationship Type, Gender and Relational Characteristics
This study examines the manner in which perceptions of relational maintenance strategies used in romantic dyads vary according to relationship type (married, engaged, seriously dating and dating) and gender. Additionally, this study investigates how perceptions of partners' maintenance behaviors differentially affect the relational characteristics of control mutuality, commitment, liking and satisfaction. Research assumptions were cast within a d…
Relational maintenance strategies and equity in marriage
Utilizing equity theory, this study extends previous research on maintenance strategies. The manner in which relational maintenance strategies are reported and perceived is examined. It was hypothesized that maintenance strategies are used more in equitable relationships than in relationships characterized by underbenefitedness. Further, the use of maintenance efforts by individuals in overbenefited relationships was explored. In addition, this s…
Measuring routine and strategic relational maintenance: Scale revision, sex versus gender roles, and the prediction of relational characteristics
In the present study, we incorporate both routine and strategic maintenance behaviors in an expanded maintenance scale. In addition, we seek to determine whether sex or gender role is a stronger predictor of maintenance behaviors, and to ascertain the extent to which maintenance predicts the relational characteristics of satisfaction, commitment, liking, and control mutuality. Data were collected from 520 married individuals. Through factor analy…
Routine Maintenance Behaviors: A Comparison of Relationship Type, Partner Similarity and Sex Differences
This study replicates and extends previous research by probing for routine behaviors that maintain relationships. In addition, maintenance behaviors of married vs dating partners are compared, and similarity of relational partners' reports of maintenance behaviors is assessed. Finally, the differences in the use of maintenance behaviors by men and women are examined. Results indicate that many of the behaviors identified in this study are similar…
Measuring relationship maintenance behaviors: Critique and development of the revised relationship maintenance behavior scale
The most frequently utilized measures of relational maintenance (i.e., the five-factor relational maintenance strategies measure, or RMSM, and the revised seven-factor RMSM) suffer from fundamental measurement flaws. Therefore, this article describes a series of studies designed to identify weaknesses in these measures and offer an improvement - the Relational Maintenance Behavior Measure (RMBM). When sound item-construction practices are followe…
Idealization, reunions, and stability in long-distance dating relationships
Two studies explore the seeming paradox reported in prior research on long-distance dating relationships (LDDRs): Despite limited interaction, LDDR partners evidence greater relational stability than partners in geographically close dating relationships (GCDRs). We investigate speculations that romantic idealization may be a key component in LDDR stability. Idealization (i.e., idealistic distortion, romantic love, relational reminiscence, perceiv…
An Initial Examination of Maintenance Behaviors in Gay and Lesbian Relationships
The present study is an initial examination of the relationship maintenance behaviors used by gay male and lesbian couples to sustain their relationship. The study replicates the open-ended survey approach used by Dainton & Stafford (1993) to explore the maintenance behaviors of heterosexual couples. In general, gay and lesbian partners were found to utilize many of the same basic maintenance behaviors that have been found in prior research on he…
Married Individuals, Cohabiters, and Cohabiters Who Marry: A Longitudinal Study of Relational and Individual Well-Being
Given that many cohabiting couples marry, our interest was in the changes that may accompany this shift in terms of relational and individual well-being. In addition, a comparison among three relationship groups was undertaken: those who entered directly into marriage, those who cohabitated and then married, and those who are long-term cohabiters. Also, comparisons across time were conducted. Our data were drawn from the 1987-1988 and 1992-1994 N…
A Panel Study of the Associations Between Maintenance Strategies and Relational Characteristics
Resilience in marriage is tied to the manner in which people strategically maintain their relationships. The associations between perceptions of five relational maintenance strategies (positivity, openness, assurances, social networks, and sharing tasks) and three fundamental relationship characteristics (liking, commitment, and control mutuality) are examined concurrently and over time. At three points in time, each separated by a month, married…
Conversational Memory: The Effects of Recall Mode and Memory Expectancies on Remembrances of Natural Conversations
While there has recently been a notable increase in attempts by memory researchers to focus on more naturalistic stimuli little attention has been paid to conversations. Conversations represent stimuli that are distinctly different in a number of ways from most other stimuli that people are required to remember. Conversations are jointly created, constantly updated, and necessarily are readily accessible by participants. The present study, explor…
Conversational Memory The Effects of Time, Recall, Mode, and Memory Expectancies on Remembrances of Natural Conversations
Participants took part in a two-stage investigation examining the changes in memory for conversation over time. The impact of memory expectancy and mode of recall were also examined. Participants could recall only about 10% of their conversations immediately after the conversations. One month later this figure had dropped to 4%. Examination of recall protocols revealed that after a one month delay, participants recalled less content and reported …
Women's Surnames: Decisions, Interpretations and Associations with Relational Qualities
There has been little systematic empirical research to date concerning women's choices to change or keep their surnames upon marriage. This study of 110 women employs a dialectical perspective to explore women's decisions concerning their surnames. Specifically, we identify the issues involved in making this decision, examine associations between the surname chosen and relational qualities (satisfaction, love, commitment, intimacy) and interpret …
Equity and Interdependence as Predictors of Relational Maintenance Strategies
This article continues a research program on relational maintenance strategies used in marriage. In particular, we explore how equity and satisfaction, defined in terms of interdependence theory, individually and jointly are predictive of self-reported maintenance strategies. The rationale for the study is based on previous programmatic efforts, as well as a critique of these efforts. Over 200 married couples completed measures of equity, satisfa…
Sanctity of marriage and marital quality
Mahoney and colleagues' theorizing about the potential role of sanctity as a central feature of religion/spirituality is invoked to examine the relationships among sanctity of marriage, (un)forgiveness, sacrifice, and both positive and negative marital satisfaction. The study examined the perspectives of both members of 342 marital dyads using an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model and a multilevel path modeling. The results indicate that sanctit…
When long-distance dating partners become geographically close
This study explored long-distance dating relationships' (LDDRs) transition to geographic proximity. About half of LDDR partners experience this transition, whereas the other half end their relationships during separation. Among reunited relationships, one-third terminate within 3 months of reunion. Participants' open-ended responses highlight changes associated with reunion, including the loss of autonomy; increased positive and negative knowledg…
Actor-Observer Differences in Conversational Memory
The effects of participant and observer perspectives on the quantity and quality of information recalled from conversations were examined. The observers were exposed to the conversation through videotape, audiotape, or transcript. No differences were found between participants and observers on measures of recall quantity. However, analysis of the composition of recall protocols indicated that participants reported more thematic and evaluative sta…
Marital Sanctity, Relationship Maintenance, and Marital Quality
It has been argued that individuals who consider their marriages as sacred are likely to put greater effort into protecting those marriages. As relationship maintenance behaviors have been defined as efforts enacted to maintain features such as marital satisfaction, it is possible that relational maintenance behaviors serve as a link between marital sanctity and marital satisfaction. A sample of 244 heterosexual married couples completed measures…
A Relational Approach to Religion and Spirituality in Marriage: The Role of Couples’ Religious Communication in Marital Satisfaction
Using a relational model of religion and spirituality in marriage, the role of individual relationship with God, couple's joint religious communication, and forgiveness were examined as predictors of marital satisfaction. Data from 342 heterosexual married couples were analyzed using an actor partner interdependence model and path analyses. Results indicate that one's individual relationship with God is important to marital quality indirectly as …
Responses to Embarrassment
Journal Article Responses to Embarrassment Get access William F. Sharkey, William F. Sharkey 1William F. Sharkey is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Speech at the University of Hawaii at Manoa Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Laura Stafford Laura Stafford 2Laura Stafford is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Ohio State University Search for other works by this author on:…
An investigation of relational turbulence and depressive symptoms in newly married women
This study uses the relational turbulence model to examine depressive symptoms in newly married women. It reports data from a pre-/posttest study in which 152 women completed an online survey during their engagement and 6 months after their wedding. Nearly 12% of the women reported reliable and clinically meaningful increases in depressive symptoms after their wedding. Using panel data analysis, this study found that increases in self uncertainty…
Maintenance Behaviors in Same-Sex and Marital Relationships: A Matched Sample Comparison
This study is follow-up to Haas and Stafford’s (1998) initial exploration of communi-cative relationship maintenance behaviors in gay and lesbian relationships. This in-vestigation is an attempt to explore relationship maintenance behaviors of ongoing, same-sex relationships through direct comparison with those used in heterosexual marriages. Using a community-based sample, 30 married heterosexuals from a larger study on maintenance were matched …
People Want—and Maintain—Fair Marriages: Reply to Ragsdale and Brandau—Brown
Following three studies that criticized our research on the link between equity and relational maintenance strategies (Ragsdale, 1996; Ragsdale & Brandau-Brown, 2004, 2005), we (2006) submitted an
Emerging adults' preferred surnames: Reasons and social cognitive dispositions
Surname practices in the U.S. are believed to reflect and reinforce the enduring patriarchal nature of U.S. society. Yet, some women and men reject patriarchal expectations. Calls for research accounting for such individual variations have been made. We examine the role that dispositional differences play in preferences for and reasoning about marital surnames in a sample of U.S. heterosexual women and men. With an online survey, we examined 799 …
Communal strength, exchange orientation, equity, and relational maintenance
The purpose of this study was to explore communal strength (i.e., partner-specific communal orientation) and partner-specific exchange orientation, as well as equity, as predictors of relational maintenance. A sample of 309 heterosexual couples completed self-reports. Given the dyadic interdependence, the actor-partner independence model was used. Dyadic analyses were undertaken using structural equation modeling conducted in AMOS. Results indica…
Blue Brides: Exploring Postnuptial Depressive Symptoms
We conducted in-depth interviews with 28 newly married women to explore the experience of postnuptial depressive symptoms. Nearly half of the participants indicated that they felt let down or depressed following their wedding, and some participants reported clinical levels of depression. We found several stark contrasts between the bluest and the happiest brides. Blue brides described feeling uncertain in their marriages, focused on self during w…
Conversational Memory: The Effects of Recall Mode and Memory Expectancies on Remembrances of Natural Conversations
While there has recently been a notable increase in attempts by memory researchers to focus on more naturalistic stimuli little attention has been paid to conversations. Conversations represent stimuli that are distinctly different in a number of ways from most other stimuli that people are required to remember. Conversations are jointly created, constantly updated, and necessarily are readily accessible by participants. The present study, explor…
Regrettable Messages: Things People Wish They Hadn't Said
Mark L. Knapp, Laura Stafford, John A. Daly; Regrettable Messages: Things People Wish They Hadn't Said, Journal of Communication, Volume 36, Issue 4, 1 Dec
Conversational Memory The Effects of Time, Recall, Mode, and Memory Expectancies on Remembrances of Natural Conversations
Participants took part in a two-stage investigation examining the changes in memory for conversation over time. The impact of memory expectancy and mode of recall were also examined. Participants could recall only about 10% of their conversations immediately after the conversations. One month later this figure had dropped to 4%. Examination of recall protocols revealed that after a one month delay, participants recalled less content and reported …
Maternal Input to Twin and Singleton Children Implications for Language Acquisition
Journal Article Maternal Input to Twin and Singleton Children: Implications for Language Acquisition Get access Laura Stafford Laura Stafford 1Laura Stafford (Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin, 1985) is an assistant professor of communication at the Ohio State University. This study is based upon Stafford's doctoral dissertation, completed at the University of Texas at Austin, August 1985 Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academ…
Actor-Observer Differences in Conversational Memory
The effects of participant and observer perspectives on the quantity and quality of information recalled from conversations were examined. The observers were exposed to the conversation through videotape, audiotape, or transcript. No differences were found between participants and observers on measures of recall quantity. However, analysis of the composition of recall protocols indicated that participants reported more thematic and evaluative sta…
Responses to Embarrassment
Journal Article Responses to Embarrassment Get access William F. Sharkey, William F. Sharkey 1William F. Sharkey is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Speech at the University of Hawaii at Manoa Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Laura Stafford Laura Stafford 2Laura Stafford is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Ohio State University Search for other works by this author on:…
Maintenance Strategies and Romantic Relationship Type, Gender and Relational Characteristics
This study examines the manner in which perceptions of relational maintenance strategies used in romantic dyads vary according to relationship type (married, engaged, seriously dating and dating) and gender. Additionally, this study investigates how perceptions of partners' maintenance behaviors differentially affect the relational characteristics of control mutuality, commitment, liking and satisfaction. Research assumptions were cast within a d…
Relational maintenance strategies and equity in marriage
Utilizing equity theory, this study extends previous research on maintenance strategies. The manner in which relational maintenance strategies are reported and perceived is examined. It was hypothesized that maintenance strategies are used more in equitable relationships than in relationships characterized by underbenefitedness. Further, the use of maintenance efforts by individuals in overbenefited relationships was explored. In addition, this s…
An inductive analysis of relational maintenance strategies: Comparisons among lovers, relatives, friends, and others
This investigation reports a typology of maintenance behaviors that were derived through inductive analyses of papers students wrote about their strategies for maintaining various relationships. Ten major strategies were inductively derived: positivity; openness; assurances; sharing tasks; social networks; joint activities; cards/letters/calls; avoidance; anti‐social; and humor. These strategies extend the previous research on relational maintena…
Routine Maintenance Behaviors: A Comparison of Relationship Type, Partner Similarity and Sex Differences
This study replicates and extends previous research by probing for routine behaviors that maintain relationships. In addition, maintenance behaviors of married vs dating partners are compared, and similarity of relational partners' reports of maintenance behaviors is assessed. Finally, the differences in the use of maintenance behaviors by men and women are examined. Results indicate that many of the behaviors identified in this study are similar…
Courtship
Interaction between Parents and Children
Continuing Controversies About Children and Their Development Relevant to Parent-Child Interaction Theoretical Orientations What the Child Becomes Three Selected Variables The Child as Clay An Overview of the Unidirectional Approach The Child as Clay The Unidirectional Approach to Three Variables Through the Looking Glass An Overview of Bidirectional Approaches Through the Looking Glass Bidirectional Approaches to Three Variables The Family as a …
Parenting: An Ecological Perspective
Contents: M.H. Bornstein, Series Foreword: Monographs in Parenting. T. Luster, L. Okagaki, Introduction. Part I: Characteristics of the Parents. L. Okagaki, G.E. Bingham, Parents' Social Cognitions and Their Parenting Behaviors. J. Vondra, H.B. Sysko, J. Belsky, Developmental Origins of Parenting: Personality and Relationship Factors. T. Luster, J.L. Haddow, Adolescent Mothers and Their Children: An Ecological Perspective. R.D. Parke, J. Dennis, …
Women's Surnames: Decisions, Interpretations and Associations with Relational Qualities
There has been little systematic empirical research to date concerning women's choices to change or keep their surnames upon marriage. This study of 110 women employs a dialectical perspective to explore women's decisions concerning their surnames. Specifically, we identify the issues involved in making this decision, examine associations between the surname chosen and relational qualities (satisfaction, love, commitment, intimacy) and interpret …
An Initial Examination of Maintenance Behaviors in Gay and Lesbian Relationships
The present study is an initial examination of the relationship maintenance behaviors used by gay male and lesbian couples to sustain their relationship. The study replicates the open-ended survey approach used by Dainton & Stafford (1993) to explore the maintenance behaviors of heterosexual couples. In general, gay and lesbian partners were found to utilize many of the same basic maintenance behaviors that have been found in prior research on he…
The Gratification Niches of Personal E-mail and the Telephone: Competition, Displacement, and Complementarity
The theory of the niche predicts that a new medium will compete with established media for consumer satisfaction, consumer time, and / or consumer advertising dollars. Competition between e-mail and telephone use was measured in this study at the level of gratifications derived by consumers. Gratifications and gratification opportunities (consumers' beliefs that a medium allows them to obtain greater opportunities for satisfaction) were derived f…
Measuring routine and strategic relational maintenance: Scale revision, sex versus gender roles, and the prediction of relational characteristics
In the present study, we incorporate both routine and strategic maintenance behaviors in an expanded maintenance scale. In addition, we seek to determine whether sex or gender role is a stronger predictor of maintenance behaviors, and to ascertain the extent to which maintenance predicts the relational characteristics of satisfaction, commitment, liking, and control mutuality. Data were collected from 520 married individuals. Through factor analy…
A Panel Study of the Associations Between Maintenance Strategies and Relational Characteristics
Resilience in marriage is tied to the manner in which people strategically maintain their relationships. The associations between perceptions of five relational maintenance strategies (positivity, openness, assurances, social networks, and sharing tasks) and three fundamental relationship characteristics (liking, commitment, and control mutuality) are examined concurrently and over time. At three points in time, each separated by a month, married…
Maintaining Long-Distance and Cross-Residential Relationships
This thought-provoking volume offers an innovative and intriguing approach to the study of long-distance relationships. Author Laura Stafford examines romantic long-distance relationships and then expands the conception of long-distance relationships to include other relational types. She summarizes literature across the social sciences on various types of long-distance relationships and extracts themes and patterns across the relational types. I…
Romantic and Parent-Child Relationships at a Distance
Cultural expectations in U.S. society dictate that communication should be frequent and face-to-face in order to sustain close relationships, romantic partners should live in geographic proximity, and married individuals and parents and young children should share a residence. Such conceptions about communication in and residential structures of close relationships immediately call into question how geographically separated individuals can mainta…
Married Individuals, Cohabiters, and Cohabiters Who Marry: A Longitudinal Study of Relational and Individual Well-Being
Given that many cohabiting couples marry, our interest was in the changes that may accompany this shift in terms of relational and individual well-being. In addition, a comparison among three relationship groups was undertaken: those who entered directly into marriage, those who cohabitated and then married, and those who are long-term cohabiters. Also, comparisons across time were conducted. Our data were drawn from the 1987-1988 and 1992-1994 N…
Maintenance Behaviors in Same-Sex and Marital Relationships: A Matched Sample Comparison
This study is follow-up to Haas and Stafford’s (1998) initial exploration of communi-cative relationship maintenance behaviors in gay and lesbian relationships. This in-vestigation is an attempt to explore relationship maintenance behaviors of ongoing, same-sex relationships through direct comparison with those used in heterosexual marriages. Using a community-based sample, 30 married heterosexuals from a larger study on maintenance were matched …
Equity and Interdependence as Predictors of Relational Maintenance Strategies
This article continues a research program on relational maintenance strategies used in marriage. In particular, we explore how equity and satisfaction, defined in terms of interdependence theory, individually and jointly are predictive of self-reported maintenance strategies. The rationale for the study is based on previous programmatic efforts, as well as a critique of these efforts. Over 200 married couples completed measures of equity, satisfa…
When long-distance dating partners become geographically close
This study explored long-distance dating relationships' (LDDRs) transition to geographic proximity. About half of LDDR partners experience this transition, whereas the other half end their relationships during separation. Among reunited relationships, one-third terminate within 3 months of reunion. Participants' open-ended responses highlight changes associated with reunion, including the loss of autonomy; increased positive and negative knowledg…
People Want—and Maintain—Fair Marriages: Reply to Ragsdale and Brandau—Brown
Following three studies that criticized our research on the link between equity and relational maintenance strategies (Ragsdale, 1996; Ragsdale & Brandau-Brown, 2004, 2005), we (2006) submitted an
Psychology (36 works) · Social Psychology (29 works) · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics (27 works) · Social Psychology (23 works) · Developmental psychology (17 works) · Family Dynamics and Relationships (17 works) · Sociology (17 works) · Relationship maintenance (10 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Marriage and Sexual Relationships (9 works)