When Modes Collide: A Daily Diary Study of Mixed-Media Use and Conflict Behavior in Romantic Relationships

ABSTRACT

A 5-day diary study examined if and how conflict behavior moderates the association between mode integration and relational and conflict outcomes among individuals in romantic relationships. Participants recorded daily conflict, conflict behavior, mode integration, relational satisfaction, and conflict resolution. In line with the communication interdependence perspective, the more mode integration individuals reported in constructive conflict, the more relational satisfaction they experienced. The data also revealed that the less mode integration individuals reported in low destructive conflict, the more conflict resolution they experienced. The results highlight the importance of examining conflict behavior and media use in tandem when studying romantic conflict.

KEYWORDS:

• Communication interdependence perspective
• diary study
• interpersonal conflict
• mixed-media relationships

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/1041794X.2023.2215218

Notes

1. Eight students (3.17%) and 244 (96.82%) MTurk workers participated in the diary study.

2. This measure is an index. The items in an index may not be correlated (see Streiner, 2003). Cronbach’s α is reported for descriptive use only. As a recall cue, participants were then asked what topic(s) of disagreement they discussed with their partners using each channel they reported using in their conflict discussion(s) with their partner.

3. Flooding occurs when individuals are overwhelmed emotionally by conflicts with their partners (Gottman, 1999). Gottman’s flooding questionnaire assessed the perceived threat value of each topic of conflict discussed. Items include “I felt overwhelmed by our argument,” “Small issues suddenly became big issues,” and “The discussion got too heated” on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) (M = 3.92; SD = 0.60; α = .70).

4. The median is reported as an indicator of central tendency as these distributions have a positive skew and, in these cases, reporting the median is recommended (Hinkle et al., 2003).