As one of the most common mental health disorders in the world, depression represents a major concern for those who have the condition and their close relational partners. Extant literature has prioritized depression in romantic and parent-child relationships. The sibling bond is underexamined, despite the uniqueness of the relationship and siblings’ positive role in mental health. Family systems theory frames the family as a complex system of interdependent individuals and relationships (or subsystems). Because system-level patterns are transmitted intergenerationally, family systems theory argues that depression is not solely a contributor to negative family outcomes, but also the result of maladaptive system patterns developed over the family’s history. Family communication research has traditionally centered on a given dyad or triad in a singular interaction or set of interactions. This neglects the influence of other family members, interacting subsystems, and previous experiences. That is, the sibling’s navigation of depression is not merely a dyadic issue, as the sibling subsystem is situated within the larger family system. Therefore, the present study seeks to describe the family system-related dilemmas faced by emerging adults who take on the supporting sibling (SS) role for their sibling with depression (SWD).

Inconsistent nurturing as control (INC) theory posits that close relational partners of individuals who display undesirable behavior have conflicting goals to nurture and control. Consequently, unafflicted partners respond to afflicted partners’ undesirable behavior in inconsistent ways that unintentionally reinforce the behavior. Although INC theory was originally created to describe the maintenance of problematic substance use in romantic couples, it has been applied to a variety of health disorders and family relationships. Sibling depression represents an intersection unexamined through an INC lens. As such, the present study investigates SSs’ communicative management of their family system-related dilemmas pertaining to their SWD’s condition, with the objectives of better understanding the SS’s experience and gauging the applicability of INC theory to siblings and depression.

Fifty emerging adults who grew up with at least one sibling, and one or both of the siblings having chronic depression, participated in individual semi-structured interviews about sibling management of depression in the family system. A thematic analysis revealed several interrelated themes demonstrating the relevance of the larger family system in all parts of the navigation of sibling depression. Insufficient support from older generations, combined with care for their SWD, contributed to emerging adults’ felt obligation to upholding the SS role. They grappled with internal tension as they struggled to balance their family relationships, SWD’s needs, and their own well-being and autonomy. Findings are elaborated upon, and implications for family systems research, INC theory, and practice are discussed.

As family members and their loved one living with Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias (ADRD) navigate their new reality as a family, understanding how they communicatively manage challenging interactions while also foster moments of joy and emotional co-presence is a pivotal concern for all stakeholders. Caregiving informally has been associated with poor physical and mental health outcomes, and the unique challenges inherent to an ADRD diagnosis present significant complexities. Given that the trajectory and symptomology associated with ADRD are highly unpredictable, this can create an overwhelming number of uncertainties for families. A hallmark of these conditions is the impact that cognitive changes have on communication ability, which can make fostering meaningful interactions and feeling confident about care-related decisions even more uncertainty-inducing. Previous research examining how family members and their loved ones living with ADRD communicate tend to focus on limited recommendations rather than the process that led to these strategies. In addition, previous research investigating the needs of family caregivers of loved ones living with ADRD suggest a deeper analysis on how exactly family members can better support each other that ultimately help them to work together to compassionately care for their loved one. The construct of rhythmic synergy emerged from the narratives of 31 adult family caregivers who were currently providing care (or had previously provided care) for a loved living with ADRD. The interviews were analyzed to understand how informal family caregivers navigate their experiences with regards to how they make sense of their caregiving experience, learn to communicate specifically with their loved one, and how the family navigates trying to come together to coordinate care. By focusing on the process of communication at both the dyadic level and family level, a more nuanced picture of communication in the family caregiving context became clearer. Rhythmic synergy conceptualizes the way people develop and continually evolve their communication patterns by being sensitively attuned to the abilities of someone who has differing communication abilities related to a cognitive condition. The goal of creating rhythmic synergy is that it not only eases certain aspects of caregiving but also becomes a way to promote social and emotional presence. Overall, the construct of rhythmic synergy bridges together multiple bodies of literature and offers several theoretical contributions, namely focusing specifically on the role of communication as a temporal process. As for practical contributions, rhythmic synergy helps conceptualize how family members and care partners can better perceive their communication patterns to ultimately nurture moments of connection and co-presence with the loved one and work together as an entire family to coordinate care.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a virtual reality intervention could serve as a relational maintenance tool for older adults living in a residential care community. The current study extends the literature on older adults and technology by suggesting that residents can provide one another relational maintenance and communal orientation, which can then potentially help promote such positive outcomes as vitality, social activity, and quality communication, and lessen such negative outcomes as depression, stress, and loneliness. The study took place in a residential care community in Santa Barbara, CA. Residents were randomly assigned to participate once a week for four weeks in either a virtual reality or television group. Analyses were conducted in R and consisted of multilevel mediation with bootstrapping. Results indicate that the virtual reality intervention was positively associated with higher levels of vitality and lower levels of loneliness. The study integrated novel ways of understanding older adults’ living in a residential care community, new methodological techniques, and new insights into important relational processes outlined in the theory of resilience and relational load (Afifi, Merrill, & Davis, 2016)

This mixed methods study explored how individuals learn about emotional and sexual intimacy, how individuals communicate about intimacy in their romantic relationships, and what socialization factors facilitate or impede sexual communication in relationships. Three theoretical frameworks – attachment theory, family communication patterns theory, and adverse childhood experiences – were used to quantitatively test how socialization factors affect individuals’ communication and satisfaction in current relationships. Romantic couples (N = 135 dyads) discussed emotional and sexual intimacy in their relationships during a recorded Zoom conversation and completed online surveys before and after the Zoom conversation. A subsample of original participants (n = 31) completed follow-up interviews that went more in depth about their socialization of intimacy and their perceptions of their relationship following the Zoom conversation. Multiple methods were used to analyze the data. Actor-partner interdependence structural equation modeling tested the hypothesized quantitative models. Attachment avoidance and anxiety had the strongest effect on participants’ current relational communication. However, both partners’ communicative responsiveness, fear of emotional intimacy, and general sexual communication affected each other’s relationship and sexual satisfaction, thus demonstrating the importance of dyadic analyses for interpersonal relationships. A phronetic iterative analysis (Tracy, 2020) was used to analyze the conversations and follow-up interviews for overarching themes. The qualitative analyses of both the conversation and interview data produced four themes: (a) Socialization of Intimacy, (b) Learning About Intimacy is a Continuous Process, (c) Intimacy Displays are Either Modeled or Compensated, and (d) Emotional and Sexual Intimacy Build Over Time. A fifth theme gleaned from the interview data, Conversation Served as an Intimacy Intervention, illuminated that the Zoom conversation functioned as a means for many couples to have subsequent intimacy conversations after participating in the study. The findings from this study have pragmatic implications for all couples, especially those who struggle with discussing intimacy. The findings from this study are also useful for clinicians who work with individuals and/or couples to better understand their communication and relationships by examining how their past experiences affect their current communication patterns.

The purpose of the current dissertation was multi-faceted: 1) propose the value of an iterative process of measure validation for theoretical advances, 2) iteratively develop and evaluate validity of the Media Multitasking Intensity Questionnaire (MMTIQ), and 3) propose and examine a theory of media multitasking intensity.

The current dissertation proposes a relationship between current measure development and validation practices, inconsistent empirical evidence, and stalled theoretical development. The inability to replicate seminal empirical findings and thus evidence theoretical validity has led the social sciences to begin to re-examine norms for empirical research. Of the various solutions that have been proposed, the role of measurement and validation has been unexamined and underestimated. Validation is often limited to a single-effort or justified via citation and significant findings, leaving various potential threats to the security (i.e., evidenced confidence) of validity claims. Iterative validation efforts would allow for issues with the definition and measurement can be identified, examined, and adjusted based on evidence. Thus, all research can be considered a form of measure validation effort. This iterative process of validation is exemplified via the development and validation of an experience sampling measure of media multitasking intensity called the Media Multitasking Intensity Questionnaire (MMTIQ). Five studies provided evidence to evaluate the security (i.e., confidence of claims) of conceptual validity, interpretational or useful validity, criterion validity, generalizable validity across context and populations or measurement invariance, and response process validity.

Finally, the current dissertation involves a theory of media multitasking intensity. This theory of media multitasking intensity was investigated by examining parent-adolescent executive functioning, self-regulation, media multitasking intensity, and stress. Media multitasking was redefined as the perception of the co-occurrence of or interference between two or more tasks, when at least one of these tasks’ stimuli is a form of mediated information (i.e., media). Media multitasking intensity refers to four dimensions of media multitasking that vary the intensity or demand of resource allocation: task co-occurrence or interference, task difficulty, task intentionality, and task relevancy. In a one-week longitudinal intensive study of 324 parent-adolescent dyads’ media multitasking intensity, the current dissertation found that parents engage in higher media multitasking intensity than adolescents. Increased media multitasking intensity was associated with greater general stress at the end of the week and lower executive functioning and self-regulation capacities. Yet, adolescents with diminished self-regulation engaged in less media multitasking and more intentionally irrelevant media use in comparison to parents, which may be indicative of procrastination. These findings demonstrate the nuance that media multitasking intensity can observe, and illustrate that the nuances of media multitasking warrants further research especially upon the dimensions of intentionality and relevance.