Nonverbal and Verbal Approach Behaviors Related to Reported and Perceived Support Seeking Goals in Conversations

Abstract

This study investigated interaction behaviors associated with young adult children’s desire to obtain emotion‐ and problem‐focused support in conversations with their mothers. It also explored the relationship between young adult children’s behaviors and mothers’ judgments that children wanted each type of support. Approach behaviors in support episodes reflect a distressed individual’s willingness to approach the problem and/or feelings about the problem. These include both negatively valenced nonverbal arousal cues and problem‐ and feeling‐related verbal disclosure. Findings provide support for the link between some nonverbal arousal cues and mothers’ perceptions that young adult children wanted problem‐focused support, but not for the expectation that children’s arousal cues would relate to their reported support goals. In contrast, verbal emotion disclosure predicted children’s desire to obtain both support types but was unrelated to mothers’ judgments.

Keywords:

• Support Seeking
• Mother–Young Adult Child Relationships
• Verbal Disclosure
• Nonverbal Arousal

Notes

[1] Students from classes (78) received extra credit and mothers and sons (6) recruited from newspaper ads in order to increase the number of son–mother combinations were paid 20 dollars for participation. Two sets of participants were removed from analyses because the children (ages 35 and 46 years) were significantly older than the others in the sample. One set was removed due to videotaping failure, and three sets were removed due to failure to complete a relevant questionnaire.

[2] The types of topics that participants discussed in this section included things like what they had done that day, projects they were working on for school, or their plans for the evening. None of the participants discussed the problem that was the topic of the problem talk.

[3] Several researchers have used video recall procedures to tap into either cognitive or affective responses in interaction without creating an artificial constraint during the actual interaction (e.g., Manusov, 1990). Gottman and Levenson (1985) found a similarity between participants’ physiological responses during the interaction and during a recall session, suggesting that the emotions and related cognitive processes experienced during the interaction might be experienced during the recall task.

[4] Emotion‐focused support items included provide reassurance, indicate that she is there for you, express confidence in your abilities, encourage you, show understanding, express concern, and make you feel worthwhile. Problem‐focused support items were give helpful advice or guidance, help you decide what to do about the problem, offer some specific help, and do something for you.

[5] Soft volume was rated higher (1 = loud; 7 = soft).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

April R. Trees

April Trees is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Parts of this paper are from her doctoral dissertation, completed under the direction of Dr Valerie Manusov at the University of Washington and supported in part by an INPR New Scholar’s Award. A previous version of this paper was presented at NCA, Seattle, WA, 2000.