Research on divorce has found that adolescents' feelings of being caught between parents are linked to internalizing problems and weak parent-child relationships. The present study estimates the effects of marital discord, as well as divorce, on young adult offspring's feelings of being caught in the middle (N ¼ 632). Children with parents in high-conflict marriages were more likely than other children to feel caught between parents. These feelings were associated with lower subjective well-being and poorer quality parent-child relationships. Offspring with divorced parents were no more likely than offspring with continuously married parents in low-conflict relationships to report feeling caught. Feelings of being caught appeared to fade in the decade following parental divorce. These results suggest that, unlike children of divorce, children with parents in conflicted marriages (who do not divorce) may be unable to escape from their parents' marital problems-even into adulthood.

The purpose of this study was to develop a theoretical model of communal coping in postdivorce families and other naturally occurring groups. This framework builds upon previous models of communal coping (C. A. Berg, S. P. Meegan, & F. P. Deviney, 1998; R. F. Lyons, K. Mickelson, J. L. Sullivan, & J. C. Coyne, 1998) in its identification of appraisal and action dimensions. However, the current model extends this work in five important ways by: (a) providing a more complex picture of the interdependent nature of coping; (b) extending current thinking about the transactional and fluid nature of the coping process; (c) addressing the different levels of responsibility for stressors within groups; (d) articulating how coping is affected by group dynamics, like group norms, power, and differences in perspectives; and (e) demonstrating the influence of context and the type of stressor on the coping process. The dimensions of the model are discussed in terms of the literature on communal coping and group processes.

This study used a Communication Privacy Management perspective to examine the communication patterns that foster and ameliorate triangulation in stepfamilies. The qualitative analysis of 90 in-depth interviews with stepchildren, stepparents, and parents from 30 stepfamilies revealed that enmeshed communication boundaries contributed to children feeling caught between their custodial and noncustodial parents and parents and/or stepparents feeling caught between the children in the stepfamily. The dialectical tensions of loyalty-disloyalty and revealment-concealment that comprised stepfamily members' feelings of being caught produced turbulence in their previously established communication rules. The stepfamilies responded to these tensions with boundary coordination or boundary separation. The ways the boundaries became enmeshed and the management attempts used to coordinate new boundary rules are outlined.

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Resilience is one of the most profound constructs across disciplines. Yet, the largely atheoretical nature of the research on resilience continues to make it elusive. A new theory of stress and resilience in close relationships-the theory of resilience and relational load (TRRL)-is advanced to fill this void in the literature. The theory bridges communicative, perceptual, and physiological aspects of stress within the context of social relationships to explain personal/relational risk, resilience, and thriving. The TRRL examines how relational partners' and family members' communal orientation and maintenance of their relationships on a daily basis influence their communication during stressful moments, as well as their appraisals of the stress. The theory also details how these communication patterns and appraisals influence personal and relational health and adaptation. Finally, the concept of relational load is set forth, which is the wear and tear that chronic stress and depletion of one's emotional, psychological, and relational resources through repeated, stress-related conversations can have on relationships. Ultimately, people need to continually invest in their relationships to prevent relational load and foster resilience and possible thriving.

No abstract

Feelings of uncertainty are a central feature of the disaster experience. Surprisingly, though, there is very little systematic quantitative research about the impact of uncertainty on disaster survivors. Moreover, communal coping has increasingly received attention as a potential buffer of the negative effects of stressors but that literature is also limited in its application to disasters. This investigation applies research in the domain of uncertainty, together with the Theoretical Model of Communal Coping to better understand the experience of a community exposed to three wildfires in a one year period. A random-digit dialing procedure was used to gather data from 402 individuals. Participants completed measures of mental health, uncertainty, and communal coping in the context of their experience with the most personally stressful of the three wildfires. All analyses were examined separately for those who were evacuated and those who were not. Results support the negative impact of uncertainty across both evacuated and nonevacuated sub-samples and show a strong buffering role for communal coping among those who evacuated. The implications of these findings for the understanding of wildfire survivors' experiences are noted and future directions are proposed.

Despite theoretical arguments that avoiding certain topics can be functional, there is consistent evidence that avoiding topics tends to be associated with dissatisfying relationships. This disparity between theory and empirical findings suggests a need to understand better the connection between topic avoidance and relational dissatisfaction. The current study, which is grounded in communication privacy management theory (Petronio, 2002), examines this issue by investigating moderators of the connection between avoidance and dissatisfaction. Data were gathered from 114 parent-child dyads and 100 heterosexual dating couples. Results suggested that the associations between topic avoidance and relational dissatisfaction were moderated by individuals' motivations for avoidance and by personal and relational characteristics that are conceptually linked to such motivations. These findings are consistent with theoretical arguments that topic avoidance can be benign-and even helpful-in some relational circumstances.