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The study examines how messages to, from, and concerning home may impact first-semester college student retention. The current study extends previous retention research in several ways. Rather than collect data regarding retention after students drop out, this study analyzed free write responses of 135 participants while they were enrolled in 15 sections of CIS 110 (Composition and Communication I) throughout the course of the Fall 2010 semester. Using relational dialectics theory (RDT) (Baxter & Montgomery, 1996) as a sensitizing framework, this study identified three discursive struggles and associated radiants of meaning present in the free write responses of these 135 first semester college students. Specifically, students identified experiencing the discursive struggles of independence, integration, and expression during the first semester of college. Non-returning students also identified these same three discursive struggles. However, non-returning students identified the discursive struggle of expression much more than did the returning students. Ultimately, this dissertation study proposed practical implications for students, parents, and the academy regarding how messages to, from, and about home might impact the transition of first-semester students from high school to college.

abstract: Emerging adulthood--a developmental point in the life span (usually between the ages of 18-25) during which children no longer see themselves as adolescents but would not yet consider themselves adults--is marked by identity exploration and discovering new life directions. When emerging adults find themselves serving as caregivers for their parent during a time when they would normally be establishing autonomy and exploring new directions, they may feel conflicted by their desire to both care for their parent and maintain a sense of independence. Thus, using a multiple-method research design that includes both an autoethnography and a qualitative content analysis of young adult caregivers' online posts, this study intends to uncover the dialectical tensions (the interplay of communicative tensions within a relationship) an emerging adult daughter experiences in her relationship with her mother as she serves as her caregiver, experiences her death, and grieves her passing by analyzing the author's personal narrative. To provide a deeper understanding of the dialectical nature of the emerging adult caregiver experience, the study was extended with an examination of other young caregivers' experiences, drawn from online forums, to explore how they encounter tensions within their own relationships with their parents. An analysis of the personal narrative revealed one primary dialectical tension, separation-connection, and three interrelated tensions--predictability-change, openness-closedness, and holding on-letting go--that seemed to influence this primary tension. Results of the qualitative content analysis revealed that other caregivers experienced one primary dialectical tension, sacrifice-reward, and two additional, interrelated tensions: independence-dependence and presence-absence. A comparison of the findings from each methodological approach revealed both similarities and differences in experiences of emerging adult caregivers. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Communication 2010

abstract: The current study is the first qualitative investigation aimed solely at understanding what it means to communicate conditional forgiveness in serious romantic relationships. Conditional forgiveness is forgiveness that has been offered with the stipulation that the errant behavior cease. It is a provocative topic because some argue genuine forgiveness is not conditional, but recent discoveries that have associated its use with severe transgressions and relational deterioration suggest it is a critical site for investigation. This inductive analysis of open-ended data from 201 anonymous surveys identified both distinctions between and intersections of conditional forgiveness, forgiveness, and reconciliation. A relational dialectics analysis also revealed that reconcilable-irreconcilable was the overarching tension for conditional forgivers and six additional tensions also were also discovered: individual identity-couple identity, safety-risk, certainty-uncertainty, mercy-justice, heart-mind, and expression-suppression. Of particular intrigue, the current analysis supports the previous discovery of implicit conditional forgiveness--suppressing conditions, sometimes in response to physical and substance abuse. Ultimately, the current analysis contributes to the enduring conversation aimed at understanding the communication and pursuit of forgiveness and reconciliation. It addresses one of the basic instincts and paradoxes of existing with others--the balance between vulnerability and protection. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Communication Studies 2011

abstract: Maintaining sexual desire as the marriage endures is a challenge, especially as it involves the interplay of seemingly opposing tensions of novelty, autonomy, and closeness. Difficulties can arise when autonomy, which requires spousal distancing, is perceived as a martial threat and therefore suppressed. This dissertation investigates whether prosocial marital distancing can nurture autonomy and promote sexual desire. Torah-observant Jewish married couples practice family purity, a Jewish law forbidding sexual relations during menstruation and shortly thereafter. During this time couples often avoid sleeping in the same bed, physical touch, and behaviors that can instigate a sexual encounter. These distancing restrictions are lifted when the wife immerses in a ritual bath. The process repeats at the next menstruation. This research examined the effects of family purity’s marital distancing through two studies. The first involved qualitative interviews of family purity wives (N = 10) guided by relational dialectics theory (Baxter & Montgomery, 1996). Study one findings suggest that family purity wives navigate the three tensions of integration, expression, and certainty. Study one also revealed a new tension, the dialect of restraint. The dialectic of restraint appears to enhance marital communication, heighten the appreciation for the mundane, and help sustain sexual desire. Study two, the quantitative phase of the research, applied self-expansion theory (Aron & Aron, 1986) to investigate differences between family purity and non-family purity couples. A sample of 90 married Jewish dyads (N = 180) participated in a cross-sectional online questionnaire. Findings suggest that while non-practicing couples report greater self-expansion, family purity couples report greater sexual closeness. Family purity couples also report the same closeness and sexual closeness ideals, whereas non-practicing couples reported divergent ideals. Non-practicing family purity husbands had the greatest reported discrepancy between ideal and actual sexual closeness. The combined findings suggest that sanctioned prosocial distancing as practiced by family purity couples enables the integration of cognitive growth and mitigates the threat of autonomy. Prosocial distancing within the family purity marriage appears to provide the wife space for autonomy that in turn provokes novelty and sexual desire. Findings are discussed in relation to theoretical contributions, study limitations, and future directions. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Communication Studies 2020

Transracial adoptive families often encounter various struggles around race as they acknowledge the challenges of racial dissimilarity in their family structure. This thesis, grounded in the theoretical framework of Relational Dialectics Theory, explored the competing discourses around the conversation of race for adult Asian adoptees. The results from 35 semi-structured interviews and contrapuntal analysis revealed one dialectical tension highlighting the Asian adoptee’s role in maintaining conversations of race with their White adoptive parents. Some adoptees voiced the discourse of taking the opportunity to be the advocate, while others voiced the discourse of feeling frustrated with being the advocate. The results of this thesis provide the perspective of Asian adoptees in White families as they attempt to engage in conversations about race with their family members.

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No description available.

For many teenagers, learning to play guitar might only involve themselves and one or more of their peers interacting outside school. Music education research, however, does not reveal the spectrum of ways in which adolescent musicians interact to learn peer-to-peer. The purpose of this study was to examine this process: how adolescents verbally and nonverbally communicated to learn music together and without adult teachers. Two research questions in this study addressed how systems of meanings emerged in adolescent musicians’ processes of talk. The first was: How do participants learning jointly and independently communicate with a peer outside school? The second question was: How do participants assess independent learning along with their peer and joint learning outside school? The participants were six adolescent guitarists from El Paso, Texas. The final candidates included five males with Hispanic backgrounds and one Mexican-American adolescent male. Data were collected in three observations of the guitarists learning in pairs. Data were also collected in interviews, artifacts, and field notes. Discourse analysis involved review of recorded observations, field notes, and transcripts. Data were coded and parsed into categories. Multiple systems of meanings emerged in themes. Quoted material helped to explain the discourse themes. Three sets of findings included main dialectic discourse themes: together–individual, unreserved–reserved, and established–undetermined. Four identity discourses—self-learner, coach, musical artist, and friend—emerged from participants’ dialogues. Three themes indicated how participants individually assessed learning, and two themes showed how joint evaluations emerged peer-to-peer. This study and its results highlight a spectrum of ways adolescent musicians use everyday talk to learn music outside school. Findings in this study might empower music teachers to facilitate their students’ own peer dialogues. Future research can build on the foundation of findings here, which raise questions for exploring how communication outside school might compare with communication in school, how peer-to-peer music learning might be facilitated, as well as implications about why certain types of communication influence music learning.