Date of Award

Spring 5-2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Communication & Theatre Arts

Program/Concentration

Lifespan and Digital Communication

Committee Director

Gary Beck

Committee Member

Erland James Baesler

Committee Member

Thomas Socha

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.C47 L48 2013

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the influences and transgressional associations of empathic communication in military romantic relationships. Through varying attachment styles, deployments, and combat experience, soldiers have a unique set of circumstances that impact the use of empathic communication in relationships. Since the effectiveness of empathic communication is also limited by unreliable communicative technologies, infidelity effects were also tested. A 66-item online survey was placed on Survey Monkey with links from social media networking websites, like Facebook and Twitter. Surveys were anonymous and only taken by soldiers who had experienced at least one deployment. The goodness of fit of the path model was found to be significant. Empathy and empathic communication were mediators between reliability of communication technologies on deployment and communicative infidelity. In future studies, the causes of communicative infidelity should be further explored in military relationships.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/0k3g-dt74

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