Leah Lefebvre
Biographic Data
| ID | 97260 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Leah Lefebvre |
| GIVEN NAMES | Leah |
| FAMILY NAME | Lefebvre |
| SIGNATURE | LEFEBVRE L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Alabama |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7307-2895 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 32 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 123 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 32 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
A Meta-Analysis of Friends with Benefits Relationships
Rules in Friends with Benefits Relationships in Established Adulthood
Guided by communication privacy management theory, this study examined rules in a friends with benefits relationship for established adults (30–55 years old). The most common rules from the sample (N = 240) included prevention of overlapping lives (i.e. cannot meet family) and the presentation of the relationship (i.e. keep the relationship a secret). Explicit rules were associated with greater relationship satisfaction, intimacy, and trust as co…
Never Been In A Romantic Relationship
Objective This multi‐method study explores singleness in emerging adults, including reasons for never being involved in romantic relationships. Background Comparative experiences provide insight into developmental processes for emerging adults with prior romantic relationship histories (PRRs) and those who have never been in a romantic relationship (NRRs). Methods We recruited a convenience sample of United States collegiate students ( N = 369) t…
Virtual Relational Curation
This study extends the Virtual Relational Memory model (VRM) to examine the intersection of communication technology, attachment orientation, and post-breakup adjustment. Prior research linked the retaining of virtual possessions to a decline in post-breakup adjustment, and this study investigates the role of avoidant and anxious attachment orientation. Using United States collegiate students, participants ( N = 357) completed an online questionn…
Affectionate communication consent
This study investigates how professional cuddlers develop consensual affectionate exchanges, emphasizing the role of consent in platonic interactions, and how they navigate the violation of consent or expectations. Participants ( N = 15) included cuddle practitioners represented from several countries and ranging from 10 months to 10 years of experience. We applied a phronetic-iterative approach to derive themes surrounding (non)reciprocity and r…
Collaborative student-to-student communication during Team-Based Learning test-taking
This study explores teams engaged in student-to-student collaborative test-taking. Participants were undergraduate students enrolled in 16-week Team-Based Learning (TBL) course who completed the Readiness Assurance Process four times throughout the semester. A mixed-methods approach incorporated the transcription of intragroup dialogue coded to measure the amount of verbal communication, nonevidence, evidence, and process dialogue to then quantit…
How will your relationship be remembered
The Relationship Dissolution Model (RDM) was used to analyze what and why virtual possessions people retain or delete after a romantic relationship breakup. Participants (N = 406) completed online open-ended survey questions to understand their decision-making process for retaining or deleting relationship possessions. Upon completing an emergent thematic analysis, findings showed that people retained and deleted virtual possessions for a variety…
The great reconnection
This study employs multiple methods to examine why individuals engage in relational reconnection and how self-disclosure during the re-initiation process relates to well-being during a time of acute stress. We apply Social Penetration Theory to examine individuals' motivation to reconnect with dormant contacts, which channels they selected, the extent to which partners engaged in various levels of self-disclosure during relational reconnection, a…
Metasynthesis in communication research
We conducted a comprehensive content analysis of Communication Education in order to determine the type of article and its subsequent methodology (if an original article) in an effort to make an ar
Preparing the Next Generation of Teachers Inappropriately
This study explores graduate teaching assistants’ experiences of perceived introductory course director misbehaviors. The investigation situates these experiences in the larger organizational dissent conversation–a heuristic that helps to frame how these perceived misbehaviors impact graduate teaching assistants’ understanding of their current and future work relationships with course directors. Participants (N = 55) were graduate teaching assist…
Virtual relationship memory
Virtual Relationship Memory (VRM) is a conceptual model to explore the way people remember and socially construct their romantic relationships, with a focus on the breakup process and memories after a relationship has ended. The model is situated within the research exploring relationships, technology, and memory. We articulate three components—objects, networks, and stories—which independently and concurrently represent how communication technol…
Exploring Eye Contact in Virtual Environments
Eye contact is considered a quintessential aspect of a speaker’s delivery when interacting with an audience. This exploratory study investigated a specific area of interest (AOI) exhibited by speakers in a technologically mediated virtual environment (VE). Such virtual immersion allows speakers to present to audience members and utilize their speaker notes all within a digital replication of the physical speaking environment. A Compositor Mirror …
Perceptions of romantic partners' responses to disclosures of suicidality
This mixed‐methods study examines how adults in the United States perceive their romantic partner's response to disclosures of suicidality and how romantic relationship characteristics relate to perceptions of disclosure responses. Participants ( N = 30) recruited from Reddit completed a survey using open‐ and closed‐ended questions about disclosing suicidality to a romantic partner. Qualitative findings highlight validating and invalidating disc…
Disclosure and nondisclosure of suicidality to romantic partners
The stigmatization of suicidal thoughts and behaviors often prevents disclosure to others, including romantic partners. Minimal research has examined the disclosure or withholding of this stigmatized identity, resulting in a lack of knowledge about the benefits or consequences of informing others. Participants ( n = 61) were recruited from Reddit and completed open-ended questions about their prior suicidal ideation and behaviors while in a roman…
How concerns about former or future partners influence virtual possession management
As relational partners document their romantic relationships in mediated contexts, they must manage virtual relational possessions to determine what should be kept or deleted, particularly following a breakup. Using the Relational Dissolution Model, this study examines keeping and deleting behaviors through the lens of a newly proposed process – relational curation. Collegiate participants (N = 234) who had experienced a breakup were recruited to…
You did what
The study explores graduate teaching assistants’ (GTAs) perceptions of misbehaviors of other GTAs across multi-section introductory communication courses. Utilizing the teacher misbehaviors’ typology, this study examines novice teachers’ perceptions of teacher misbehaviors. A convenience sample of current introductory course graduate teaching assistants (N = 55) responded to open-ended questions about what constituted teachers’ misbehaviors, why …
Ghosted
Ghosting is the unilateral dissolution process of ceasing communication through media. When ghosted, non‐initiators are often left without the ability to navigate the resulting uncertainty or impending dissolution processes. Utilizing uncertainty reduction theory and ambiguous loss, this investigation explores effective and ineffective strategies used to find answers, reduce uncertainty, and navigate post‐dissolution consequences. Employing two s…
Relational Surprise Experiences as a Unique Form of Relational Maintenance
This study presents an initial exploration and conceptualization of relational surprise experiences (RSEs) as communication phenomenon involving strategic relational maintenance behaviors with potential for positive and negative outcomes. University students in the Southeastern United States (N = 203) described a RSE that occurred with a close relational partner (romantic partner, friend, or family member), explained how deception was used to ach…
Account-Making Following Relationship Dissolution
This study examines sex differences in emotion word use in retrospective private and public relationship dissolution accounts through two studies. Study 1 (n = 423) found men’s use of negative emotion words in private breakup accounts correlated with their use of negative emotion words in their public accounts; however, women’s emotion words in their private breakup accounts did not correlate with their use of emotion words in their public accoun…
Catching feelings
This exploratory study investigates how emerging adults (EAs) experience catching feelings. Applying the Stages of Change Model and Relational Receptivity Theory, this study investigates how EAs understand the cognitive and behavior changes leading up to commitment and how they process precontemplation surrounding catching feelings. Using focus group interviews, collegiate EAs ( N = 17) define catching feelings as the unintentional, unexpected, a…
Holding on and letting go
When people end their relationships, they must choose which parts of the relationship to remember and forget as they prepare themselves for future partners. This memory process is complicated by the recordability and permanence of mediated messages because individuals must actively curate their virtual possessions-such as pictures with a previous partner or online relationship statuses. Using the relational dissolution model framework, this study…
Ghosting in Emerging Adults’ Romantic Relationships
The purpose of this study is to examine relational dissolution using the technique of ghosting. This qualitative study explores the emerging adults’ dissolution strategies leading up to and through enactment of disengagement through mediated contexts. Participants ( N = 99) completed questionnaires about their ghosting familiarity and participation as initiators or noninitiators. The majority of participants reported participating in both roles. …
Remembering the voice
This study examines preservation of voicemail artifacts. Applying an exploratory approach through grounded theory, participants ( N = 52) from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk provided common reasons for retaining voicemail artifacts. Results highlighted why participants retained or deleted general and specific voicemails. Five categories, past-focused, important, future-focused, sentimental, and neglectful, represented retaining reasons. The oldest and …
Swiping me off my feet
Tinder, a mobile dating application (app), facilitates the initiation of new, potentially romantic relationships and promotes itself as a social discovery platform dominating the U.S. with 1.4 billion swipes per day. This exploratory study investigates how people engage in relationship initiation behaviors through Tinder and highlights how interpersonal relationship initiation, selection processes, and strategic pre-interaction behaviors are evol…
Fluctuation in on‐again/off‐again romantic relationships
This study explored how fluctuations in satisfaction and perceived partner commitment were associated with stability measures (e.g., commitment, perceived stability, relational uncertainty, turbulence) in both on‐again/off‐again and noncyclical relationships. Participants completed an initial survey, 8 weekly surveys, and a final survey. Results suggest fluctuation in perceived partner commitment across the weekly surveys was associated with all …
Swiping me off my feet
Tinder, a mobile dating application (app), facilitates the initiation of new, potentially romantic relationships and promotes itself as a social discovery platform dominating the U.S. with 1.4 billion swipes per day. This exploratory study investigates how people engage in relationship initiation behaviors through Tinder and highlights how interpersonal relationship initiation, selection processes, and strategic pre-interaction behaviors are evol…
Navigating romantic relationships on Facebook
The present study explores how people use social networking sites to adjust to breakups by studying their postdissolution behaviors. We apply Rollie and Duck’s (2006) relationship dissolution model by examining how collegiate Facebook users ( N = 208) enact behaviors in breakups to extend the model to online environments during and after breakups. Furthermore, we employed a retrospective design utilizing qualitative methods to define categories o…
Charting changes in commitment
The present study examined how turning points reported by individuals in on-again/off-again (on-off) relationships reflected relationship trajectories. Participants ( N = 581) completed an online Retrospective Interview Technique asking them to report on up to 10 turning points. Participants indicated their commitment level at each turning point. Based on the variations in commitment across turning points, five trajectories emerged. Trajectory gr…
The I's, We's, and She/He's of Breakups
People adjusting from couplehood to singlehood often engage in account creation in order to privately make sense of their relationship life and death, as well as publicly explain the changes to their social network. This study analyzes language style differences in retrospective private and public accounts of relationship breakups. We examined language use as it relates to the creation of accounts, breakup initiator status, and relationship disso…
Catching feelings
This exploratory study investigates how emerging adults (EAs) experience catching feelings. Applying the Stages of Change Model and Relational Receptivity Theory, this study investigates how EAs understand the cognitive and behavior changes leading up to commitment and how they process precontemplation surrounding catching feelings. Using focus group interviews, collegiate EAs ( N = 17) define catching feelings as the unintentional, unexpected, a…
Holding on and letting go
When people end their relationships, they must choose which parts of the relationship to remember and forget as they prepare themselves for future partners. This memory process is complicated by the recordability and permanence of mediated messages because individuals must actively curate their virtual possessions-such as pictures with a previous partner or online relationship statuses. Using the relational dissolution model framework, this study…
Social Networking Site Behaviors Across the Relational Lifespan
This study examines (1) the factor structure of social networking site relational behaviors (SNSRB), (2) the association between the behaviors and relational quality and breakup adjustment, and (3) whether behaviors vary as a function of relational status. Participants' responses ( N = 363) indicated that the majority of variance in SNSRB was accounted for by 10 factors-surveillance, managing impressions through photographs, regulating usage, mai…
Disclosure and nondisclosure of suicidality to romantic partners
The stigmatization of suicidal thoughts and behaviors often prevents disclosure to others, including romantic partners. Minimal research has examined the disclosure or withholding of this stigmatized identity, resulting in a lack of knowledge about the benefits or consequences of informing others. Participants ( n = 61) were recruited from Reddit and completed open-ended questions about their prior suicidal ideation and behaviors while in a roman…
Emerging adult confidants’ judgments of parental openness
Research on openness and disclosure has prioritized the perspectives of disclosers and largely omitted the experiences of confidants. In particular, we contend that it is important to learn more about how emerging adult (EA) confidants perceive parental disclosure episodes and how parental openness manifests in ways that lead to increased intimacy. In Study One, participants’ open-ended descriptions of parental disclosures were thematically analy…
The great reconnection
This study employs multiple methods to examine why individuals engage in relational reconnection and how self-disclosure during the re-initiation process relates to well-being during a time of acute stress. We apply Social Penetration Theory to examine individuals' motivation to reconnect with dormant contacts, which channels they selected, the extent to which partners engaged in various levels of self-disclosure during relational reconnection, a…
Virtual relationship memory
Virtual Relationship Memory (VRM) is a conceptual model to explore the way people remember and socially construct their romantic relationships, with a focus on the breakup process and memories after a relationship has ended. The model is situated within the research exploring relationships, technology, and memory. We articulate three components—objects, networks, and stories—which independently and concurrently represent how communication technol…
Perceptions of romantic partners' responses to disclosures of suicidality
This mixed‐methods study examines how adults in the United States perceive their romantic partner's response to disclosures of suicidality and how romantic relationship characteristics relate to perceptions of disclosure responses. Participants ( N = 30) recruited from Reddit completed a survey using open‐ and closed‐ended questions about disclosing suicidality to a romantic partner. Qualitative findings highlight validating and invalidating disc…
Affectionate communication consent
This study investigates how professional cuddlers develop consensual affectionate exchanges, emphasizing the role of consent in platonic interactions, and how they navigate the violation of consent or expectations. Participants ( N = 15) included cuddle practitioners represented from several countries and ranging from 10 months to 10 years of experience. We applied a phronetic-iterative approach to derive themes surrounding (non)reciprocity and r…
Remembering the voice
This study examines preservation of voicemail artifacts. Applying an exploratory approach through grounded theory, participants ( N = 52) from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk provided common reasons for retaining voicemail artifacts. Results highlighted why participants retained or deleted general and specific voicemails. Five categories, past-focused, important, future-focused, sentimental, and neglectful, represented retaining reasons. The oldest and …
Choosing Emma’s ending
This single story investigation explores the ontological framework for analyzing how personal stories emerge. This analysis delineates a story told by Emma in a fashion to resemble that of audience members listening to a story for the first time. This article breaks apart the traditional narrative research approach of beginning, middle, and end facilitating a renewed focus on the role of orator and audience’s involvement. The purpose of this pape…
Choosing Emma’s ending
This single story investigation explores the ontological framework for analyzing how personal stories emerge. This analysis delineates a story told by Emma in a fashion to resemble that of audience members listening to a story for the first time. This article breaks apart the traditional narrative research approach of beginning, middle, and end facilitating a renewed focus on the role of orator and audience’s involvement. The purpose of this pape…
Charting changes in commitment
The present study examined how turning points reported by individuals in on-again/off-again (on-off) relationships reflected relationship trajectories. Participants ( N = 581) completed an online Retrospective Interview Technique asking them to report on up to 10 turning points. Participants indicated their commitment level at each turning point. Based on the variations in commitment across turning points, five trajectories emerged. Trajectory gr…
Navigating romantic relationships on Facebook
The present study explores how people use social networking sites to adjust to breakups by studying their postdissolution behaviors. We apply Rollie and Duck’s (2006) relationship dissolution model by examining how collegiate Facebook users ( N = 208) enact behaviors in breakups to extend the model to online environments during and after breakups. Furthermore, we employed a retrospective design utilizing qualitative methods to define categories o…
The I's, We's, and She/He's of Breakups
People adjusting from couplehood to singlehood often engage in account creation in order to privately make sense of their relationship life and death, as well as publicly explain the changes to their social network. This study analyzes language style differences in retrospective private and public accounts of relationship breakups. We examined language use as it relates to the creation of accounts, breakup initiator status, and relationship disso…
Emerging adult confidants’ judgments of parental openness
Research on openness and disclosure has prioritized the perspectives of disclosers and largely omitted the experiences of confidants. In particular, we contend that it is important to learn more about how emerging adult (EA) confidants perceive parental disclosure episodes and how parental openness manifests in ways that lead to increased intimacy. In Study One, participants’ open-ended descriptions of parental disclosures were thematically analy…
Social Networking Site Behaviors Across the Relational Lifespan
This study examines (1) the factor structure of social networking site relational behaviors (SNSRB), (2) the association between the behaviors and relational quality and breakup adjustment, and (3) whether behaviors vary as a function of relational status. Participants' responses ( N = 363) indicated that the majority of variance in SNSRB was accounted for by 10 factors-surveillance, managing impressions through photographs, regulating usage, mai…
Fluctuation in on‐again/off‐again romantic relationships
This study explored how fluctuations in satisfaction and perceived partner commitment were associated with stability measures (e.g., commitment, perceived stability, relational uncertainty, turbulence) in both on‐again/off‐again and noncyclical relationships. Participants completed an initial survey, 8 weekly surveys, and a final survey. Results suggest fluctuation in perceived partner commitment across the weekly surveys was associated with all …
Adaptations to Traditional Familial Roles
Grandmothers-raising-grandchildren narratives challenge normative familial preconceptions. Utilizing the life-course theory to examine the turbulence and time-disordered role orientations, this study showcases the familial development punctuated by transitions and highlights the transformations experienced in grandparent relationships. This qualitative phenomenological study investigates six grandmothers’ experiences about their unforeseen life c…
Remembering the voice
This study examines preservation of voicemail artifacts. Applying an exploratory approach through grounded theory, participants ( N = 52) from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk provided common reasons for retaining voicemail artifacts. Results highlighted why participants retained or deleted general and specific voicemails. Five categories, past-focused, important, future-focused, sentimental, and neglectful, represented retaining reasons. The oldest and …
Swiping me off my feet
Tinder, a mobile dating application (app), facilitates the initiation of new, potentially romantic relationships and promotes itself as a social discovery platform dominating the U.S. with 1.4 billion swipes per day. This exploratory study investigates how people engage in relationship initiation behaviors through Tinder and highlights how interpersonal relationship initiation, selection processes, and strategic pre-interaction behaviors are evol…
Ghosting in Emerging Adults’ Romantic Relationships
The purpose of this study is to examine relational dissolution using the technique of ghosting. This qualitative study explores the emerging adults’ dissolution strategies leading up to and through enactment of disengagement through mediated contexts. Participants ( N = 99) completed questionnaires about their ghosting familiarity and participation as initiators or noninitiators. The majority of participants reported participating in both roles. …
How concerns about former or future partners influence virtual possession management
As relational partners document their romantic relationships in mediated contexts, they must manage virtual relational possessions to determine what should be kept or deleted, particularly following a breakup. Using the Relational Dissolution Model, this study examines keeping and deleting behaviors through the lens of a newly proposed process – relational curation. Collegiate participants (N = 234) who had experienced a breakup were recruited to…
You did what
The study explores graduate teaching assistants’ (GTAs) perceptions of misbehaviors of other GTAs across multi-section introductory communication courses. Utilizing the teacher misbehaviors’ typology, this study examines novice teachers’ perceptions of teacher misbehaviors. A convenience sample of current introductory course graduate teaching assistants (N = 55) responded to open-ended questions about what constituted teachers’ misbehaviors, why …
Ghosted
Ghosting is the unilateral dissolution process of ceasing communication through media. When ghosted, non‐initiators are often left without the ability to navigate the resulting uncertainty or impending dissolution processes. Utilizing uncertainty reduction theory and ambiguous loss, this investigation explores effective and ineffective strategies used to find answers, reduce uncertainty, and navigate post‐dissolution consequences. Employing two s…
Relational Surprise Experiences as a Unique Form of Relational Maintenance
This study presents an initial exploration and conceptualization of relational surprise experiences (RSEs) as communication phenomenon involving strategic relational maintenance behaviors with potential for positive and negative outcomes. University students in the Southeastern United States (N = 203) described a RSE that occurred with a close relational partner (romantic partner, friend, or family member), explained how deception was used to ach…
Account-Making Following Relationship Dissolution
This study examines sex differences in emotion word use in retrospective private and public relationship dissolution accounts through two studies. Study 1 (n = 423) found men’s use of negative emotion words in private breakup accounts correlated with their use of negative emotion words in their public accounts; however, women’s emotion words in their private breakup accounts did not correlate with their use of emotion words in their public accoun…
Catching feelings
This exploratory study investigates how emerging adults (EAs) experience catching feelings. Applying the Stages of Change Model and Relational Receptivity Theory, this study investigates how EAs understand the cognitive and behavior changes leading up to commitment and how they process precontemplation surrounding catching feelings. Using focus group interviews, collegiate EAs ( N = 17) define catching feelings as the unintentional, unexpected, a…
Holding on and letting go
When people end their relationships, they must choose which parts of the relationship to remember and forget as they prepare themselves for future partners. This memory process is complicated by the recordability and permanence of mediated messages because individuals must actively curate their virtual possessions-such as pictures with a previous partner or online relationship statuses. Using the relational dissolution model framework, this study…
Exploring Eye Contact in Virtual Environments
Eye contact is considered a quintessential aspect of a speaker’s delivery when interacting with an audience. This exploratory study investigated a specific area of interest (AOI) exhibited by speakers in a technologically mediated virtual environment (VE). Such virtual immersion allows speakers to present to audience members and utilize their speaker notes all within a digital replication of the physical speaking environment. A Compositor Mirror …
Perceptions of romantic partners' responses to disclosures of suicidality
This mixed‐methods study examines how adults in the United States perceive their romantic partner's response to disclosures of suicidality and how romantic relationship characteristics relate to perceptions of disclosure responses. Participants ( N = 30) recruited from Reddit completed a survey using open‐ and closed‐ended questions about disclosing suicidality to a romantic partner. Qualitative findings highlight validating and invalidating disc…
Disclosure and nondisclosure of suicidality to romantic partners
The stigmatization of suicidal thoughts and behaviors often prevents disclosure to others, including romantic partners. Minimal research has examined the disclosure or withholding of this stigmatized identity, resulting in a lack of knowledge about the benefits or consequences of informing others. Participants ( n = 61) were recruited from Reddit and completed open-ended questions about their prior suicidal ideation and behaviors while in a roman…
Preparing the Next Generation of Teachers Inappropriately
This study explores graduate teaching assistants’ experiences of perceived introductory course director misbehaviors. The investigation situates these experiences in the larger organizational dissent conversation–a heuristic that helps to frame how these perceived misbehaviors impact graduate teaching assistants’ understanding of their current and future work relationships with course directors. Participants (N = 55) were graduate teaching assist…
Virtual relationship memory
Virtual Relationship Memory (VRM) is a conceptual model to explore the way people remember and socially construct their romantic relationships, with a focus on the breakup process and memories after a relationship has ended. The model is situated within the research exploring relationships, technology, and memory. We articulate three components—objects, networks, and stories—which independently and concurrently represent how communication technol…
Metasynthesis in communication research
We conducted a comprehensive content analysis of Communication Education in order to determine the type of article and its subsequent methodology (if an original article) in an effort to make an ar
Collaborative student-to-student communication during Team-Based Learning test-taking
This study explores teams engaged in student-to-student collaborative test-taking. Participants were undergraduate students enrolled in 16-week Team-Based Learning (TBL) course who completed the Readiness Assurance Process four times throughout the semester. A mixed-methods approach incorporated the transcription of intragroup dialogue coded to measure the amount of verbal communication, nonevidence, evidence, and process dialogue to then quantit…
Psychology (27 works) · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics (20 works) · Social Psychology (19 works) · Computer Science (12 works) · Social Psychology (12 works) · Developmental psychology (10 works) · Romance (10 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Family Dynamics and Relationships (6 works) · Qualitative research (6 works)