Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Destiny R. Andrade, Alexander W. Parent, Ayse E. Kamber, Katelyn R. DiSaia, Alexa R. Silva
Bryant University
Abstract
TEXTING AND RELATIONSHIP CONFLICT 1
This study examined the relationship between a person’s conflict style, the exclusivity of
their romantic relationship, and how their texting habits are defined in relation to the levels of
conflict that occur in a young adult’s romantic relationship. Participants read through a
quantitative analytical survey that was designed to have them evaluate their texting behaviors
lasting six months or longer. Participants defended their perceptions by answering various
conflict, compromise, and domination. The conflict style “domination” and the use of texting for
that texting strategies do not have an influence on the development or the maintenance of a
Introduction
TEXTING AND RELATIONSHIP CONFLICT 2
Young adult cell phone owners is the demographic that has heavily influenced the
modern day phenomenon of texting becoming more mainstream. According to the Pew Research
Center’s Internet & American Life Project, its 18-24 year old cell phone owners had an average
of 109.5 messages a day (Smith, 2011). Text messaging between young adults, at this frequency,
has become a necessary aspect to more individual’s lives and can have a heavy impact on the
ultimate satisfaction within their romantic relationships. Texting ultimately affects the
development and maintenance of relationships due to the fact that it can hinder the quality or aid
this area of communication is to understand the large prevalence that texting increasingly has on
the lives of impressionable young adults, especially when texting is used for certain areas of
relationship management. Our study focuses specifically on the effects that texting behaviors
have on the levels of conflict within romantic relationships between young adults.
Literature Review
As technology continues to grow more prevalent in our world today, the need for it is
powerful in how we communicate in interpersonal relationships. Whether people are using social
media, text messaging or emailing to communicate to one another, the usage of our phones and
computers are what help us stay connected from various geographic distances. In a report that
was conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project on smartphone
ownership, a sample of 3,014 adults showed that 66% of those adults who owned phones were in
between the ages of 18-29 (Rainie, 2012). The romantic relationships of these teenagers and
young adults are heavily influenced by the use of mobile devices as a form of communication.
New technology being used by this generation allows individuals to interact through multiple
TEXTING AND RELATIONSHIP CONFLICT 3
communication channels. According to Dimmick, Feaster, & Hoplamazian (2011), with new
These changes can be seen among how couples interact on a daily basis through channels such as
texting, phone calls and face-to-face communication. The new channels emerging with the
advanced technology can also affect the communication of romantic couples in terms of
There are five conflict behaviors that exist: integrating, compromising, avoiding,
obliging, and dominating (Pruitt & Rubin, 1986). Integrating and compromising styles are used
when people are concerned about others just as much as they are concerned about themselves.
Avoiding and obliging styles are both used by non-confrontational individuals who are not
concerned with themselves or the other person (Gross & Guerrero, 2000), as well as those who
only want to preserve a relationship. Domination, however, is the most confrontational conflict
style that places emphasis on “defeating the opponent” (Cai & Fink, 2002). According to a study
conducted by Allison & Emmers (2011), both U.S citizens and internationals preferred
integrating and compromising the most and dominance the least when it came to conflicts. Cai &
Fink (2002), however, states that integrating and compromising can be combined, as they are
communication was studied by Meluch & Walter (2012). The study concluded that individuals
are more likely to compromise with others in face-to-face settings and less likely to compromise
communication that must take place between the individuals.” Additionally, those in face-to-face
TEXTING AND RELATIONSHIP CONFLICT 4
communication settings may feel more pressure “to be involved because of immediacy.” On the
other hand, in computer-mediated communication settings, there is less immediacy and more
time constraints, Therefore, compromise will happen more face-to-face than it will over a
computer. Hample, Richards, & Skubisz (2013) state that people argue to
“assert their dominance over the other person.” This contrasts with the idea of compromise in a
relationship, in which Gross & Guerrero (2000) previously stated as a conflict style in which the
person cares about the other. Someone who cares about another person and their viewpoints
would not try to “assert dominance,” as Hample, Richards, & Skubisz (2013) previously stated.
In addition, this source stated that domination is a behavior that can lead to blurting, which
according to Hample, Richards, & Skubisz (2013) is “saying things spontaneously and without
editing.” People who blurt see interpersonal arguments in a “less cooperative or civil” way and
emphasize dominance. These people also ranked high in aggression, both verbal aggression and
Conflicts due to texting have been seen in long-distance relationships (LDR). A study
conducted by Lee, Bassick, & Mumpower (2016) focused on the relationship satisfaction of
young adults in LDR based on their preferred channel when initiating a conflict. These channels
included texting, email, phone calls, video calls and face-to-face communication. The study
stated that “the more satisfied participants were with their LDR, the less frequently they used
texting to initiate conflicts with their partners, and the longer they were in current LDR, the more
frequently they used texting for conflict initiation.” While conflict styles were not specified in
this study, it is still significant that conflicts can arise from texting.
because these behaviors may influence the conflicts that arise from texting. Jin & Peña (2010)
TEXTING AND RELATIONSHIP CONFLICT 5
claim that maintaining relationships through texting has become an increasingly important factor
within modern young couples because it reduces levels of relational uncertainty. Knobloch &
Solomon (2002) define relational uncertainty as ‘‘the degree of confidence people have in their
Jin & Peña (2010) conducted a study to measure how people use different strategies for
reducing relational uncertainty. It was concluded that the “non-tethered” feature that cell phones
have allows individuals to communicate more openly and interdependently. Being able to
communicate at various degrees from any location reassures satisfaction and inner desires being
met with ease. This is due to the idea that arrangements and concerns can be resolved in real
time, instead of issues needing to wait until partners are face-to-face. In simpler terms, according
to this study, texting made relationship maintenance faster and easier for those in romantic
relationships. The results of this study are consistent with Berger & Calabrese (1975) findings of
uncertainty reduction theory, which states that when there is a greater amount of communication
and an increase in interactions between partners, partner and individual uncertainty is lower. This
Furthermore, Berger & Calabrese (1975) also claim that the uncertainty reduction
found that those in more developed relationships used “text-based communication technologies”
for self-disclosure less than those in relationships that are not as developed. Therefore, it can be
concluded that texting is important to develop a relationship in its starting stages, but not as
Rationale
There is sufficient research that cell-phone usage affects romantic relationships. Whether
it be text messaging, phone calls, or emails, there is some sort of negative or positive effect. We
know that conflict can ultimately exist within cell-phone usage. It is evident through the research
of Dimmick, Feaster, & Hoplamazian (2011) and Rainie (2012) that texting among the young
adult age group of 18-29 is becoming increasingly common along with the use of new
technology to communicate. Therefore, our study will continue to focus on this demographic.
Despite previous research on all types of mobile-phone communication, this study will narrow
cell-phone usage down to solely texting. Additionally, we will be looking at conflict as the main
effect of texting. The findings of Lee, Bassick, & Mumpower (2016) prove that conflicts can
arise due to texting in long distance relationships. Our study will focus on romantic relationships
that are not specific to distance to see if these results stand. However, the study conducted by
Lee, Bassick, & Mumpower (2016) did not specify conflict styles. Due to the findings of Allison
and Emmers (2011) in which dominance was preferred the least and compromise was preferred
the most among all types of people, we decided to study these two conflict styles. Additionally,
the findings of Hample, Richards, & Skubisz (2013) for evidence of dominance in relationships
and the findings of Meluch & Walter (2012) for evidence of compromise in relationships
However, we were not able to form a hypothesis that predicted a directional relationship.
This is because the studies of Jin & Peña (2010) and Ruppel (2014) contrasted with each other
regarding texting behaviors. Jin & Peña (2010) claim that relationship maintenance is an
important factor in couples who text each other, while Ruppel (2014) claims that relationship
development is an important factor in couples who text each other, with maintenance being less
TEXTING AND RELATIONSHIP CONFLICT 7
important. Due to these varying results, our study will focus on both relationship development
and relationship maintenance as it pertains to texting, with no specified relational direction. With
RQ: Do different texting habits affect the levels of conflict in exclusive romantic relationships
Method
Research Design
A quantitative analytical survey is the research design of choice for our research question.
This design is appropriate to test our research question for a variety of reasons. A survey is a
time-friendly research design, which will ensure that we can get enough responses from
participants in order to generalize our results on time. Additionally, our survey requires
individual opinions that require evaluating a relationship’s conflict and texting behaviors.
Therefore, an experiment would not suffice, because an individual needs time to reflect on their
relationships, rather than take part in a timed experiment. Our goal was to test if texting
behaviors affect conflict levels in young adult romantic relationships. Out of all the responses
that we received from our participants, 71 of those responses were considered valid. Out of
those 71 responses, 27 of those participants were males (38.0 %) and 44 were females (62.0 %).
The average age for all participants was 21 years old. Although this was the average age, it is
important to make note that 7 of the 71 members did not indicate their age.
TEXTING AND RELATIONSHIP CONFLICT 8
Variable Specifications
Texting: The independent variable being studied is texting. Luo (2014), defines texting as
an exchange of short messages through a phone network between more than one cellular device.
This study will not look at social media messaging or messenger applications. The scale being
used is a Likert scale created by Broaddus and Dickson-Gomez (2016). This scale is known as
“The Uses of Texting in Sexual Relationships Scale,” which was altered for this study to
specifically focus on texting behaviors regarding conflict: maintenance and development. All
(2016) Uses of Texting in Sexual Relationships Scale. For this scale, we have members of the
study answer 10 Likert-type items (1= never 7= all the time) representing the various uses of
text messaging within relationships. Range of scores were recorded from a minimum of 24 to a
maximum of 69. This dimension represented (M = 47.28, SD = 9.605). Cronbach’s alpha for
Broaddus & Dickson-Gomez’s (2016) Uses of Texting in Sexual Relationship Scale. Along with
= all the time) based on the uses of text messages when texting their partner. After running our
test, scores ranged from a minimum of 10 to a maximum of 35. This dimension represented
(M= 23.73, sd = 5.417). Cronbach’s alpha score for Relationship Development was .749.
Conflict: The dependent variable being studied is conflict. Conflict is defined by Peterson
(1983) as the interference of the actions of one individual with the actions of another individual.
In our study, we will look at the interference of actions that individuals believe occurs within
TEXTING AND RELATIONSHIP CONFLICT 9
relationships when engaging in conflict: dominance and compromise. To measure the dependent
variable, we will be using another Likert scale created by Zacchilli, Hendrick, and Hendrick
Compromise: In our study, we used a subscale of Zachilli, Hendrick & Hendricks (2012)
Romantic Partner Conflict Scale. In involvement with the survey, participants were asked to
respond to 14 Likert-type items (1= Strongly disagree with statement 5= Strongly agree with
statement) that would help explain how they handle conflict with their partner. Scores for this
specific dimension ranged from the minimum, 54, to the maximum, 182. Specifically, the
Domination: The subscale of Domination in our study was also represented by Zachilli,
Hendrick & Hendricks (2012) Romantic Partner Conflict Scale. Particularly, in our survey, we
had all respondents answer to 6 Likert-type items (1 = Strongly disagree with statement, 5 =
Strongly agree with statement) based on how they handle conflict with their partner. Scores for
this subscale ranged from the minimum of 6 and maximum of 84. For this dimension (M =
variable. To control this variable, we use the restriction strategy. Romantic relationships in this
relationship for over six months. Therefore, any individual who wants to participate in this study
will have to note these restrictions. Conceptually, we will refer to Jerves, Rober, and Enzlin
people who agree that they are dating. To allow time for conflict to occur within a relationship,
the individuals who partake in the survey must be in a relationship of at least six months.
Age: Age is another possible confounding variable. To control this variable, we once
again use the restriction strategy. Any individual who wants to participate in this study must be a
young adult between the ages of 18-29. This is the age group that typically uses cellular devices
to communicate with people the most, according to Rainie (2012), who explains that out of a
specific sample of 3,014 citizens, 66% percent of those people were between the ages of 18-29
The data that was collected focused on texting as a form of communication and
conflict in romantic relationships. Participants were young adults that were 18 to 29 years old
and were currently in a romantic relationship for at least six months. Using the purposive
sampling method, the questionnaires were sent via email to subjects who met the criteria. Our
survey practices anonymity, and so the identity of the participants were not revealed when they
Procedure
To ensure the validity of the research and to eliminate the use of deception, our study will
not include a cover story and will be followed by a debriefing form. Clear instructions will be
given to the research participants preceding the survey that will be emailed to them. They will be
instructed to read carefully and think critically about the answers they will denote on the survey.
Once the survey has been administered to them, it will be conducted strictly online so
participants will not be allotted a specific amount of time for which they must complete the
survey. Following the survey, there will be a debriefing form that begins immediately after the
TEXTING AND RELATIONSHIP CONFLICT 11
last question on the survey. Participants will be thanked for their cooperation and will then be
advised to print a copy of the debriefing form to keep for their personal records.
Results
Our single research question examined whether or not different texting habits affect the
levels of conflict in romantic relationships among young adults. A Pearson Product-Moment test
was used to examine if there was a correlation between two sets of variables. Firstly, the
correlation between the conflict style “compromise” and the use of texting for “relationship
development.” Secondly, the correlation between the conflict style “domination” and the use of
texting for “relationship maintenance.” After running our PPM, our results showed that there
development” in relation to whether texting habits influenced the level of conflict in exclusive
relationships among young adults. This was showed by [N (71) = -.024, p = .841]. Our second
pair of variables were “domination” and “relationship maintenance.” Results from our PPM test
also showed that there was no statistical significance between the two variables in relation to
whether texting habits influenced the level of conflict in exclusive relationships among young
adults. This presented itself by [N (71) = -.066, p = .587]. Additionally, there was no significant
correlation even when variables were reversed. That is, domination with relationship
development [N (71) = .043, p = .719] and compromise with relationship maintenance [N (71) = .
078, p = .517].
Discussion
TEXTING AND RELATIONSHIP CONFLICT 12
We proposed one research question to examine whether various texting behaviors had
any effect on the level of conflict in exclusive romantic relationships among young adults. Since
we proposed a research question, we made no prediction that accounted for the direction of the
relationship. In order to see the relationship between dominance and relationship maintenance,
and between compromise and relationship development, we ran the PPM correlation test after
gathering our data. The results indicated that there was no significant relationship between
between compromise and relationship development. Our results suggests that there is no
correlation between texting behaviors and conflict in romantic relationships. This means that
young adults between the ages of 18 to 29 can use compromise or dominance conflict strategies
when texting their romantic partner, however these strategies will not have an influence on
relationship maintenance or development. Our results gravitate towards the findings in previous
research conducted by Meluch & Walter (2012), where it was suggested that individuals prefer
face-to face communication to compromise rather than using computer-mediated settings due to
the understanding of computer-mediated settings being less immediate. While we did not test for
face-to-face communication, our results suggest that this may have more of an effect than
texting.
Limitations
Our study had multiple limitations. The first one is quite significant because it
involves generalizability. Our study focused on young adults in the ages between 18 to 29. Since
the majority of participants from our sample that answered our survey were ages 18 to 21, there
was not a lot of data collected from the other ages, In fact, the average age of participants was
21. Because the average age of participants was 21, we do not believe that the results from our
TEXTING AND RELATIONSHIP CONFLICT 13
sample can be generalized to the population. The data we collected shows there is not a
relationship between texting and conflict in romantic relationships. Therefore, it is possible that
data could have been collected from participants who are 22 to 29 years old that showed a
relationship between texting and conflict in romantic relationships. If this data was collected, our
Our next limitation dealt with our survey design/selection. Our survey required
participants to recall different ways with how they text their partners and how they handle
conflict. Using these questions might limit the way respondents answer questions because they
could have selective memory inhibiting their recall of certain events. In turn, this selective
memory may cause participants to randomly fill out our survey based off of recent events
Our third limitation was our method of sampling and time constraints. We chose a
lengthy study and a challenging topic which affected the amount of responses we got compared
to what we would have preferred. Because we used a purposive method of sampling, we used
participants that matched our specific criteria for the study. With that being said, our sample size
and time frame to achieve a large enough sample was insufficient for the study we conducted.
This limited us from getting much more results that could have given us statistically significant
data. Along with that, sampling our respondents to those who already meet the criteria disable us
Since our study focused on romantic relations that had lasted 6 months or longer, it was
difficult to find significant relationships among our variables. Partners within the same age group
as population but in romantic relationships that had lasted less than 6 months may show
completely different results. It is possible that within the initial phase of a relationship, a partner
TEXTING AND RELATIONSHIP CONFLICT 14
will experience a significant amount of conflict that is related to texting his or her partners.
Our survey may have consisted of emotional content for some participants. This is
why our fourth limitation was our survey had been designed in a way that enhanced socially
desirable responding from participants when completing the survey. A participant may want his
or her relationship to sound healthier than it is or he or she may want to sound less dominant or
controlling over a partner. This affected our study because it skewed our results to show that
there was no correlation between dominance and relationship maintenance, due to participants
trying to mask their dominant behavior, even though the survey was anonymous.
Our last limitation involves reliability of our scales since some participants accidentally
answered the questions incorrectly making these scores on the scales not reliable. This may have
been a result of confusion when looking at scales with oppositely worded items. This may also
be caused by participants rushing while taking the survey. Therefore, this affects our results
because it provides us with conflicting and inconsistent data on whether or not texting causes
We recommend that for future researchers who choose to repeat our study, gather
data and compare it based on the age and sex of participants. Age and sex could also be held
constant. This would ensure that data is collected from all ages included in our population so that
results can be generalizable to the entire population. Data would also be more accurate, so it
would be interesting to see how the effects of texting on conflict in romantic relationships differ
between age groups and se. xFuture researchers could test Relationship Confidence because it is
possible for there to be conflict in relationships that are successful. We also suggest that future
researchers who choose to attempt to find significant results conduct a longitudinal study that
TEXTING AND RELATIONSHIP CONFLICT 15
requires repeated observations without any time constraints. It would also be interesting if future
Although this study does not have statistically significant data, it allowed us to gain a
greater understanding of a topic that is relevant to our current age group. There is little research
on our topic so it would be interesting for future researchers to delve into it more. New research
being released on this topic may also help partners in romantic relationships better evaluate how
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