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Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Hospitals and policymakers acknowledge the importance of the family in improved healthcare outcomes. Although there has been an increase in policies and research to bring families into planning, delivery, and evaluation of healthcare, there has not been a means to assess health-focused perceived support and communication behaviors. Without a means of assessing these factors, healthcare professionals cannot succinctly evaluate support and communication in a family system or provide recommendations for engaging family members in providing beneficial health-focused support and communication. This study involved the creation of the Inventory for Family Health-Focused Perceived Support and Communication Behaviors (Family HF-PSCB). Informed by family systems theory, social support literature, and health communication behaviors research, this three-phase study consisted of (a) generating items for the Family HF-PSCB, (b) establishing test-retest reliability, and (c) establishing a factor structure and convergent validity. Because of the increase of chronic disease in the United States, the Family HF-PSCB was created and tested with samples of individuals having chronic disease(s). Using a mixed methods approach, in-depth interviews with 12 participants generated 91 items for psychometric analysis. These items were tested through expert content review, and in pilot testing (n = 23), the remaining 84 items demonstrated test- retest and internal reliability. Through factor analysis (n = 209), two factors emerged to explain 72.1% of the variance. The final Family HF-PSCB contains 13 items, which indicates an individual’s perception of family health-focused support and communication behaviors. The factor explaining 63.2% of the variance has 8 items demonstrating healthfocused communication behaviors, and the second factor has 5 items demonstrating health-focused instrumental support. The developed scale suggests that family healthfocused communication behaviors may be a more explanatory variable in the family system for someone with chronic disease(s). The 13-item Family HF-PSCB demonstrates convergent validity through significant correlations with the Perceived Social Support Family Scale and the General Functioning Scale of the McMaster Family Assessment Device. Future studies should explore the correlation of the Family HF-PSCB with health outcomes attributed to symptom management in populations of chronic disease patients.

This qualitative study used a multiple case study methodology to explore the nonverbal communication behaviors and role perceptions of pre-service band teachers, and the extent to which these individuals found meaning and value in theatre seminars with respect to those factors. The informants participated in three theatre seminars taught by theatre faculty at the researcher's university. The researcher collected data in the form of videotaped theatre seminar observations, videotaped classroom teaching observations, videotaped informant reflections of teaching episodes, online peer discussions and journaling, and informant interviews. Data were analyzed, coded, and summarized to form case summaries. A cross-case analysis was performed to identify emergent themes. The broad themes identified were past experience, adaptation, realization, and being aware. The informants found that the theatre seminars increased their awareness of nonverbal communication behaviors in the classroom, and had the potential to be meaningful and valuable with respect to their perceptions of their roles as teachers.

Quantitative studies dominate early adolescence research, a field which also lacks an understanding of communication behaviors between early adolescents. This study uses the qualitative methods of participant observation and informal interviews to observe conversations between girls in a junior high lunch room. Friendship characteristics and group socialization are discussed as they emerged from the field data. First, friendship hierarchies (best friend, close friend, and friend) may be adult-imposed structures. Hierarchies are not prominent in the minds of friends as they relate to each other in daily conversation. Second, friendship groups serve to socialize early adolescent girls.

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The general relationship between the physician and the patient is one where communication is used to establish and maintain what will likely become a long-term partnership. Health communication research indicates that physicians who have apt communication skills in the patient-physician relationship develop a platform of trust behaviors. The physician communication behaviors perceived to elicit trust reported by patients are; comfort/caring, agency, competence, compassion and honesty. The objective of the research project was to assess patient perceptions of previously determined physician communication behaviors that predict patient trust through individual surveys (N=162) between foreign-born international medical graduates and American-born non-IMG resident physicians. Patients reported finding a difference in the exhibited communication behaviors between non-IMG and IMG resident physicians, with the exception of comfort/caring. A modified Trust Model guided the research and supported certain prior findings, claiming that effective communication cannot exist in the absence of a solid, trusting physician-patient relationship.