Adolescents' Communicative Goals for Problematic Events: Defining Content and Examining the Influence of Identity Processing Orientations

Abstract

This two-stage investigation identified the domain of adolescents' communicative intentions and examined the influence of identity development on the importance of single and multiple communication goals for problematic events in adolescents' close friend and romantic relationships. In Stage 1, 100 high schoolers described a problematic event and provided descriptions of their communicative intentions after the situation. A cluster analysis of the intention descriptions indicated that adolescents might pursue one of eight communication goals. In Stage 2, 180 high schoolers completed measures of identity processing orientation and communication goals for managing a problematic event. Results indicated that, to an extent, identity processing orientation influences judgments of the importance of particular—but not multiple—goals after problematic events in adolescents' close relationships.

Keywords:

• Adolescents
• Goals
• Identity Orientations
• Relational Problems

The authors thank three anonymous reviewers for their detailed and constructive comments. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2003 meeting of the International Communication Association, San Diego.

Notes

Note: Categories are based on a similarity-based cluster analysis of 40 exemplars of adolescents' communicative intentions for responses to problematic events.

N = 100.

Note. Cell entries are factor loadings, as determined by a principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation.

Adolescence is traditionally defined as a gradual period of transition from childhood to adulthood, yet the age range of this period ranges considerably from study to study. A common age range is between 11 and 19 years (Kipke, 1999), but some clinical research has defined the age range for adolescence as between 9 to 18 years of age (e.g., Buchanan, Eccles, & Becker, 1992). Others consider the entire second decade of life as adolescence (e.g., Petersen, Silbereisen, & Sorensen, 1996), with some defining the upper bound up to 25 years of age (Kipke, 1999). We solicited our samples from public middle and high schools; therefore the age range of our samples was from 14 to 19 years—a range we deemed appropriate given prior research.

It is possible that some adolescents may score high on measures of more than one identity processing orientation and in turn may be more appropriately represented by hybrid descriptions. A comparison of the mean scores from adolescents' highest-rated identity processing orientation (M = 3.81, SD = 0.51) and their second-highest orientation (M = 3.47, SD = 0.57) indicted that the two scores were significantly different, t(179) = 6.20, p < .0001, d = .46. Therefore, we used the three distinct identity processing orientation categories in our tests of hypotheses.

We first examined sex differences and relationship type differences on the measures of identity processing orientation, goal importance, and goal complexity. Analyses indicated no significant differences on the measures according to adolescents' sex or relationship type.

We are grateful to an anonymous reviewer for raising this possibility.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jennifer A. Samp

Jennifer A. Samp (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Speech Communication at the University of Georgia.

Kimberly A. Parker

Kimberly A. Parker (Ph.D., University of Oklahoma) is Assistant Professor in the Department of General Business at the University of Central Oklahoma.

Heather Duvall

Heather Duvall (M. A., University of Oklahoma) is Program Coordinator for Oklahoma Fit Kids Coalition, Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy.