Joseph W. Dickson 1 Melinda S. Harper 2 Deborah P. Welsh 1

1. Examining Subjective Understanding of Participants and Outside Observers’ in Adolescent Romantic Couples’ Interactions Joseph W. Dickson1 Melinda S. Harper2 Deborah P. Welsh1 1 University of Tennessee 2 Queens University of Charlotte

2. Purpose • To simultaneously assess the unique contributions of adolescent dating couple members’ and trained coders’ subjective understanding of an interaction to the prediction of individual and relational functioning at Time 1 and Time 2.

3. Hypotheses • Couple members are expected to perceive their interactions more similarly when compared to trained coders. This difference in subjective understanding is expected to be more divergent for the subjective understanding of couple members’ feelings compared to the subjective understanding of couple members’ behaviors. • Couple members’ subjective understanding will predict couple members’ relationship quality at time 1 above and beyond trained coders’ subjective understanding while controlling for other factors impacting couple members’ subjective understanding (i.e. depression and attachment).

4. Hypotheses (cont.) • Couple members’ and trained coders’ subjective understanding at Time 1 will predict relationship satisfaction at Time 2, while controlling for couple members’ relationship satisfaction at Time 1 and other factors impacting subjective understanding (i.e. depression at time of follow-up). • Couples’ break-up at Time 2 will be predicted by couple members’ subjective understanding at Time 1 over and beyond trained coders’ subjective understanding.

5. Participants • The Study of Tennessee Adolescent Romantic Relationships (STARR) • 209 adolescent dating couples1 • Couples dating a minimum of 4 weeks • (range: 4 weeks – 5 years; median: 11 months) • Two assessments approximately 1 year apart • (M = 14.8 months, SD = 4.6) 1Couples recruited from a previous study of 2201 high school students from 17 different high schools representing geographic (rural, urban, suburban) and economic diversity

6. Interaction Procedure • Videotape couple having 2 interaction tasks • First Task: Conflictual Issue (as selected by one couple member) (8 min 40 sec) • Second Task: Conflictual Issue (as selected by the other couple member) (8 min 40 sec) • Video-Recall Procedure (Welsh & Dickson, 2005) • Conversations viewed twice • Couples • Rate own behavior in first viewing • Rate partner’s behavior in second viewing • Trained Coders (counterbalanced) • Rate one partner in first viewing • Rate the other partner in second viewing • 40 twenty-second segments rated • 7 codes rated for each segment: connection, conflict, trying to persuade, conceding, discomfort, and frustration

7. Measures • Time 1: • Relationship Quality – (Levesque, 1993); 5-item scale to assess satisfaction in adolescents’ romantic relationships (α = .85) • Depression – (CES-D; Radloff, 1977); 20-item scale to assess depressive symptomatology during the past week using a four point scale (α = .84) • Attachment – (IPPA; Armsden & Greenberg, 1987); 28-item scale to assess parent attachment (α = .95) • Time 2: • Depression – (CES-D; Radloff, 1977); 20-item scale to assess depressive symptomatology during the past week using a four point scale (α = .90) • Dating Status - Dating status was assessed at Time 2 by asking each participant if they were still dating their original STARR partner (the original partner’s name was supplied for them to reduce confusion)

8. Results - Descriptive Findings • Due to the high correlations between self and partners’ ratings as well as non-significant paired-samples t-tests (see Table 1), self perceptions and perceptions of their partners were averaged for the variables except conceding. • The correlations examining the similarity of coders’ perceptions highlight that couple members and trained coders have some similarity in their perspectives. (see Table 2) • Using Relationship Quality to assess the construct validity of the six constructs of couples’ communication process revealed good convergent validity except for discomfort and conceding. (see Table 3)

9. Table 1: Correlations of couples’ communication process and trained coders’ rating of couples’ communication process Table 2: Correlations of couples’ and trained coders’ communication process * p < .05; ** p < .01

10. Results – Hypothesis 1 • Using analysis of variance, significant differences were found between the perceptions of trained coders and couple members. The divergent appears to be more clear when rating feelings. (Tables 4 & 5)

11. Table 4: Means and homogeneous subsets for raters’ subjective understanding of feelings

12. Table 5: Means and homogeneous subsets for raters’ subjective understanding of behaviors

13. Results – Hypothesis 2 • Predictive Findings1 • Model – 2: Couple members perceived by trained coders as being more connected reported higher relationship satisfaction t(393) = -2.18, p<.01. • Model – 3: Couple members who perceived less conflict (t(392) = -2.01, p<.05), less conceding by their partner (t(392) = -1.99, p<.05), more connection (t(392) = 2.15, p<.05), and feeling less frustrated (t(392) = -3.61, p< .001) during their conversation reported higher relationship quality. • Model – 4: While controlling for trained coders’ subjective understanding, couple members’ who reported feeling less frustrated during the interaction reported better relationship quality, t(386) = -2.78, p<.01. (see Table 6). 1Length of relationship, attachment, and depression were entered into the model as covariates

14. Results – Hypothesis 3 • Model – 2: Couple members who were viewed by trained coders as conceding more at Time 1 reported significantly lower relationship quality at Time 2, t(132) = -2.08, p < .05. • Model – 3: Couples who were depressed at Time 2 reported significantly lower relationship quality at Time 2, t(131) = -2.07, p < .05. • Model – 4: Couple members who were viewed by trained coders as conceding more at Time 1, reported poorer relationship quality at Time 2. Couples report of connection at Time 1 as well as their report of depression at Time 2 approached significance.

15. Results – Hypothesis 4 • Couple members’ perception of their connection and the trained coders’ ratings of couple members’ conceding during the interaction significantly predicted breakup at follow-up. The more connection coded by couples gives a higher probability of them still being together at Time 2. The more conceding observed by trained coders during the interaction the higher the probability of them still being together at Time 2. (With the low mean for the variable it may show flexibility)

16. Conclusions • As found in previous studies, couple members’ subjective understanding of the interaction is more favorable than trained coders’ perceptions. • Trained coders and couple members have different understandings of the interactions with more divergence in their perceptions of participants feelings. • This study demonstrates participants’ subjective understanding of the interaction as well as trained coders’ perceptions contribute unique aspects to the prediction of relational and individual functioning over time. • Couple members who were viewed by trained coders as conceding more at Time 1, reported poorer relationship quality at Time 2. • May download this poster at the address below: http://web.utk.edu/~welsh/presentations.htm