Developmental and Individual Differences in Comforting Communication Skills

This study examined the development and social-cognitive correlates of comforting communication skills during childhood and adolescence. Comforting communication involves communicative efforts directed at alleviating the distressed affective states of others. Thus, comforting communication constitutes a significant form of altruism or prosocial behavior. Comforting may also be viewed as an important type of functional communicative competence. Previous research has found that other prosocial behaviors and functional communicative competencies increase with age. Thus, it was hypothesized that children's comforting skills would increase with age. Prior research has also found that individual differences in social-cognitive abilities are positively related to both prosocial behavior and functional communication skills. Hence, it was hypothesized that individual differences in social-cognitive abilities would be positively associated with comforting skills.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Speech Communication

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Burleson, Brant Raney

• Psychology, Developmental

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8302819

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/77263