Toward an Integrated Model of Online Communication Attitudes, Communication Frequency, and Relational Closeness

ABSTRACT

This article proposes an integrative model of how attitudes about online communication are associated with relational closeness, extending the work of Ledbetter and colleagues. The model stipulates the attitudes about online communication encouraging misunderstandings between relational partners, and causing apprehension in users, negatively predicting attitudes about the ease of online communication. In turn, attitudes about online communication’s ease positively predict attitudes toward online social connection and attitudes toward online self-disclosure. Attitudes toward online social connection and self-disclosure then predict the frequency of offline and online communication, with the type of communicative goal, type of relationship, and culture moderating these associations. Offline and online communication, in turn, influences relational closeness, and that relationship is moderated by in-group identity. The model presents a unified framework with eight propositions, and generates opportunities for future research.

KEYWORDS:

• Beliefs about online communication
• online social connection
• online self-disclosure
• social identity theory
• relational solidarity

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions on an earlier version of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The integrative model proposed in this article relies on the argument that the increased number and richness of nonverbal cues in offline communication (e.g., FtF communication) may help account for why such communication has been more strongly associated with relational closeness compared to online communication. However, it should also be noted that other scholars have proposed alternative explanations. For example, electronic propinquity theory (Korzenny, 1978) holds that various factors contribute to the psychological closeness experienced by communicators, including channel bandwidth (somewhat akin to media richness), communicators’ interpersonal skills, and the number of alternative channels communicators can choose to utilize (with a channel fostering greater relational closeness when it is the only channel communicators can choose to use, as opposed to when that same channel is one among several viable channels at communicators’ disposal). Walther (2011, 2002) argued that although electronic propinquity theory remains underutilized inside and outside the communication discipline, it may provide additional or competing explanations for why certain channels might foster relational closeness more than other channels.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Quinten S. Bernhold

Quinten S. Bernhold is an assistant professor in the School of Communication Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His research interests include interpersonal and family communication.

Ronald Rice

Ronald Rice is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research interests include organizational communication, environmental communication, and new media.