1. Texting or face-to-face for support-seeking in romantic relationships: The role of affordances and attachment.
- Author
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Chen, Y. Anthony and Lu, Runzhi Mary
- Subjects
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SCALE analysis (Psychology) , *REPEATED measures design , *GOODNESS-of-fit tests , *PROMPTS (Psychology) , *CONVERSATION , *ATTACHMENT behavior , *QUESTIONNAIRES , *HELP-seeking behavior , *ANXIETY , *DESCRIPTIVE statistics , *STRUCTURAL equation modeling , *PSYCHOLOGICAL stress , *ANALYSIS of variance , *TEXT messages , *INTERPERSONAL relations , *PSYCHOLOGY of college students , *SELF-perception - Abstract
Support-seeking, a critical and strategic function of close relationships, is increasingly practiced via texting. Guided by attachment theory and an affordance-centric approach, this study investigated to what extent individuals in a romantic relationship would use texting and face-to-face for support-seeking, and what stimulates their interest in mediated support-seeking. A survey of college students in exclusive romantic relationships (N = 211) found that several affordances (i.e., accessibility, the availability of social cues, and conversation control) were associated with varying levels of interest in texting or face-to-face for support-seeking. Both accessibility and the availability of social cues were perceived as less important by avoidant individuals, which was related to a lack of interest in texting and face-to-face interactions for support-seeking. Anxious individuals valued the availability of social cues more, which led to a greater interest in face-to-face interactions when seeking assistance. These findings contribute to a better understanding of support-seeking behavior in today's mediated world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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