TY - JOUR
T1 - Using technology to unobtrusively observe relationship development
AU - Brinberg, Miriam
AU - Vanderbilt, Rachel Reymann
AU - Solomon, Denise Haunani
AU - Brinberg, David
AU - Ram, Nilam
N1 - Funding Information:
We gratefully acknowledge the support provided by the Penn State Biomedical Big Data to Knowledge Predoctoral Training Program funded by the National Library of Medicine (T32 LM012415) and Penn State Human Development and Family Studies Hintz Award. An earlier version of this manuscript was presented at the 106th Annual National Communication Association Conference. We would like to thank Sophia Textoris for her help with data collection, and the editor and reviewers for their valuable guidance. Finally, we would like to thank the participants without whom this research wouldn’t be possible. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021.
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Texting plays an increasingly important role in romantic relationships. Along with the increased use and impact of technology in and on relationships, technology provides new approaches to observe and study relationships. This study demonstrates the potential for using unobtrusive measures of texting obtained through mobile data donation for the study of communication behaviors during relationship development. In particular, we examine how texting behaviors change prior to relationship formation and during a relationship transition. Our analysis of 1+ million text messages that 41 college-age romantic couples sent to each other during their first year of dating demonstrates (a) the utility of digital trace data for studying romantic relationship development, (b) the importance of obtaining and analyzing actual texting behaviors when observing interpersonal communication that is frequent, fast, and variable, and (c) the need for more theoretical specificity in how and why different kinds of communication behaviors change as relationships develop.
AB - Texting plays an increasingly important role in romantic relationships. Along with the increased use and impact of technology in and on relationships, technology provides new approaches to observe and study relationships. This study demonstrates the potential for using unobtrusive measures of texting obtained through mobile data donation for the study of communication behaviors during relationship development. In particular, we examine how texting behaviors change prior to relationship formation and during a relationship transition. Our analysis of 1+ million text messages that 41 college-age romantic couples sent to each other during their first year of dating demonstrates (a) the utility of digital trace data for studying romantic relationship development, (b) the importance of obtaining and analyzing actual texting behaviors when observing interpersonal communication that is frequent, fast, and variable, and (c) the need for more theoretical specificity in how and why different kinds of communication behaviors change as relationships develop.
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U2 - 10.1177/02654075211028654
DO - 10.1177/02654075211028654
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85110066694
SN - 0265-4075
VL - 38
SP - 3429
EP - 3450
JO - Journal of Social and Personal Relationships
JF - Journal of Social and Personal Relationships
IS - 12
ER -