{"title":"The Role of Person-Centered Messages, Parallel Disclosures, and Reactance When Communicating Support for Parental Death","authors":"Xi Tian, Denise Haunani Solomon","doi":"10.1177/00936502231200554","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This article evaluates communicative strategies to reduce reactance and enhance outcomes when people receive supportive messages about the death of their parent. Two experiments, a laboratory study and an online survey, manipulated person-centeredness and the presence and timing of parallel bereavement disclosures by the support provider. In both studies, moderately person-centered messages produced less reactance and better support quality, compared to low person-centered messages, and were perceived to be as effective as highly person-centered messages. The inclusion of support providers’ parallel disclosures produced different outcomes depending on person-centeredness and the timing of disclosures. A perceived threat to freedom and reactance serially mediated the associations between person-centered messages and outcomes, including emotional improvement, support quality, and source derogation, but not the interactive effects of parallel disclosures and person-centered messages on outcomes. The discussion highlights the challenges of communicating support for major life stressors.","PeriodicalId":48323,"journal":{"name":"Communication Research","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9000,"publicationDate":"2023-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Communication Research","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502231200554","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article evaluates communicative strategies to reduce reactance and enhance outcomes when people receive supportive messages about the death of their parent. Two experiments, a laboratory study and an online survey, manipulated person-centeredness and the presence and timing of parallel bereavement disclosures by the support provider. In both studies, moderately person-centered messages produced less reactance and better support quality, compared to low person-centered messages, and were perceived to be as effective as highly person-centered messages. The inclusion of support providers’ parallel disclosures produced different outcomes depending on person-centeredness and the timing of disclosures. A perceived threat to freedom and reactance serially mediated the associations between person-centered messages and outcomes, including emotional improvement, support quality, and source derogation, but not the interactive effects of parallel disclosures and person-centered messages on outcomes. The discussion highlights the challenges of communicating support for major life stressors.
期刊介绍：
Empirical research in communication began in the 20th century, and there are more researchers pursuing answers to communication questions today than at any other time. The editorial goal of Communication Research is to offer a special opportunity for reflection and change in the new millennium. To qualify for publication, research should, first, be explicitly tied to some form of communication; second, be theoretically driven with results that inform theory; third, use the most rigorous empirical methods; and fourth, be directly linked to the most important problems and issues facing humankind. Critieria do not privilege any particular context; indeed, we believe that the key problems facing humankind occur in close relationships, groups, organiations, and cultures.
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