Relational maintenance: An examination of how gender, relational maintenance strategies, and commitment affect the use of text messages in romantic relationships

<p>This communication study explores the relation between commitment, relational maintenance strategies, and text message use in romantic partners. This study examines how these three factors are connected through the use of surveys. It was hypothesized that romantic partners who were more committed to one another would use text messages to communicate about certain relational maintenance strategies. Results showed romantic partners who used more relational maintenance strategies did in fact use text messages to communicate about these issues more often. Also, couples who were more committed to their partner did use more positivity when communicating through text messages with their partner. It was also found that males use the relational maintenance strategy of openness more often than females when communicating through text messages.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Open Access Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communication, Media and Theatre Arts

Year dc:date.available

2012

Author dc:creator

• Baber, Vashaun M.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Sam Shen, Ph.D, Chair
• Michael Tew, Ph.D
• Kathleen Stacey, Ph.D

• commitment
• relational maintenance strategies
• romantic partners
• text messages
• Communication

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.emich.edu/theses/379

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.emich.edu:theses-1747