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Do New Romantic Couples Use More Similar Language Over Time? Evidence from Intensive Longitudinal Text Messages.

ABSTRACT: The digital text traces left by computer-mediated communication (CMC) provide a new opportunity to test theories of relational processes that were originally developed through observation of face-to-face interactions. Communication accommodation theory, for example, suggests that conversation partners' verbal (and non-verbal) behaviors become more similar as relationships develop. Using a corpus of 1+ million text messages that 41 college-age romantic couples sent to each other during their first year of dating, this study examines how linguistic alignment of new romantic couples' CMC changes during relationship formation. Results from nonlinear growth models indicate that three aspects of daily linguistic alignment (syntactic-language style matching, semantic-latent semantic analysis, overall-cosine similarity) all exhibit exponential growth to an asymptote as romantic relationships form. Beyond providing empirical support that communication accommodation theory also applies in romantic partners' CMC, this study demonstrates how relational processes can be examined using digital trace data.

SUBMITTER: Brinberg M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8315721 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Do New Romantic Couples Use More Similar Language Over Time? Evidence from Intensive Longitudinal Text Messages.

Brinberg Miriam M Ram Nilam N

The Journal of communication 20210329 3

The digital text traces left by computer-mediated communication (CMC) provide a new opportunity to test theories of relational processes that were originally developed through observation of face-to-face interactions. Communication accommodation theory, for example, suggests that conversation partners' verbal (and non-verbal) behaviors become more similar as relationships develop. Using a corpus of 1+ million text messages that 41 college-age romantic couples sent to each other during their firs ...[more]

PMID: 34335083

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Project description:Keeping a physically active lifestyle requires consistent self-regulatory effort such as action control (e.g., continuously monitoring and evaluating a behavior in terms of one's goals). Involving the romantic partner in interventions might be particularly effective in the long run. The present study examined the long-term and transfer effects of an action control intervention in couples using text messaging for promoting target persons' and partners' physical activity, anthropometric measures and physical fitness 6 months post baseline. A total of 121 overweight and obese romantic couples, randomly allocated to an intervention (n = 60; information + action control text messages) or a control group (n = 61; information only) and to participating as target person or partner, completed baseline assessments (T1). 100 couples (82.6%) completed the 6-month follow-up (T3) assessment. Primary outcomes included self-reported moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and objective MVPA and MVPA adherence using triaxial accelerometers across a diary period of 14 days after T3. Secondary outcomes included BMI, waist-to-hip circumference and physical fitness (target persons only) using a submaximal aerobic cycle test. At T3, there were no significant between-group differences between target persons and partners with regard to their objective MVPA, self-reported MVPA, BMI, waist-hip ratio or physical fitness. No significant changes in outcomes were observed from T1 to T3; however, changes in BMI from T1 to T3 between target persons and partners in the intervention group were associated. Overall, the brief 14-days action control intervention was not effective in improving target person's physical activity, body measures and physical fitness in the long-term. Moreover, no long-term benefits for partners emerged. While brief ecological momentary interventions might be a promising tool for short-term effects, future studies are needed to test features enhancing long-term effectiveness. Associations in romantic partners' changes suggest that dyadic interventions can be a promising approach, as changes induced in one partner may then transfer over to the other (controlled-trials.com ISRCTN15705531).

Project description:BackgroundIn order to define the onset of a new episode of low back pain (LBP), the definition of a "non-episode" must be clear. De Vet et al reviewed the scientific literature but found no evidence-based definitions of episodes or non-episodes of LBP. However, they suggested that pain-based episodes should be preceded and followed by a period of at least one month without LBP. As LBP is an episodic disease, it is not clear whether a sufficient number of patients with LBP will be LBP-free for at least one month ("non-episode") to justify the use of this duration in the definition of pain free episode.ObjectivesTwo clinical populations were followed weekly over one year making it possible 1) to determine the maximum numbers in a row of weeks without LBP, 2) to determine the prevalence of non-episodes throughout a one-year period, and 3) to find the prevalence of patients who reported to be in a non-episode of LBP at the end of the study.MethodsSecondary data were used from two recent clinical studies, in which weekly automated text messages (SMSes) had been collected on the number of days with LBP in the preceding week for one year. Weeks with 0 days of LBP were defined as "zero-weeks" and four zero-weeks in a row were defined as a period without LBP (a"non-episode") according to de Vet et al's suggestion. The study participants, all from the secondary care sector, consisted of: study 1) patients with LBP and Magnetic Resonance Imaging-identified Modic changes and study 2) patients without obvious acute disc problems, Modic changes or other pathologies, who therefore were assumed to have non-specific LBP. Both studies were two-armed intervention studies without a significant difference in outcome between intervention groups. The number of zero-weeks was identified in each participant. Thereafter the numbers of participants who reported at least one non-episode during the study period were identified. Finally, the numbers of participants who had a non-episode at the end of the study were counted. Estimates are reported with their 95% confidence intervals.ResultsThe numbers of participants included in the analyses were 80 and 209. Most commonly, no zero weeks were reported, by 65% (55-75) and 56% (49-63) of patients, respectively. The percentages of study participants with at least one non-episode at some time during the course of the study were 20% (11-29) and 18% (15-21. The percentages of participants who were identified as being in a non-episode at the time of the last week of the study were, 5% (95% CI: 0-10) and 4% (1-7) respectively.ConclusionsThe vast majority of these secondary care sector patients had a profile of more or less constant LBP. The estimates for non-episodes during the study period and at the end of the study were very similar for participants with LBP who also had Modic changes and those with non-specific LBP. It is possible that a definition of pain-free periods is pointless in patients seeking care in the secondary care sector.

Dataset Information

Do New Romantic Couples Use More Similar Language Over Time? Evidence from Intensive Longitudinal Text Messages.

Publications

Do New Romantic Couples Use More Similar Language Over Time? Evidence from Intensive Longitudinal Text Messages.

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