Poster #220 - Adolescent Romantic Relationship Conflict and the use of Personal Pronouns in Observed Conflict Discussions

• In Event: 2-163 - Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Section - Social Relationships

Integrative Statement

Romantic relationships markedly increase during adolescence. Within these relationships, conflicts are considered stressful experiences (Ha et al., 2014; Rogers et al., 2018). As such, the ability to successfully navigate conflict is fundamental for healthy romantic interactions and adjustment. Research has shown that linguistics can be used as an index of conflict in a relationship. Specifically, the pronouns “I”, “we”, and “you” can provide key insights into conflictual aspects of relationships. For instance, the use of first person singular pronouns (“I”) in marital relationships during instant messaging positively predicted relationship stability (Slatcher et al., 2008). Similarly, Sillars et al. (1997) found that “we” words were used more frequently in more satisfied couples when discussing marital conflict. In contrast, the use of “you” statements is associated with lower relationship satisfaction (Seider et al., 2009; Simmons et al., 2005). The current study investigates how self reported conflict is associated with the use of personal pronouns during conflictual discussions in adolescent romantic relationships.
Ninety-one adolescent romantic couples participated in this study (N = 182 individuals; Mage = 16.7, SD =0.90, range = 13-18; 43% Latina/o, 42% White, 4% African American). Adolescents individually completed items from the Network of Relationships Inventory (NRI) using the Conflict with Romantic Partner subscale. Adolescent couples then participated in a series of discussion tasks, including (a) planning a party (b) discussions on conflict and (c) the role of jealousy in their relationship. The discussion was videotaped and transcribed. Transcriptions of these conversations were separated by partner, and were subjected to the text analysis program Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC; Pennebaker, Francis, & Booth, 2015). The present study focused on the linguistic dimension of personal pronouns (I, we, you).
For the current analyses, we combined the conflict and jealousy discussions, as these were both negative discussions. Six Actor-Partner Interdependence Models were estimated with distinguishable dyads, with “I”, “we”, and “you” as the outcome, and these were tested for the party planning and conflict/jealousy discussion separately. No significant results were found for “I” and “we” in any of the models, indicating that levels of conflict were not related to the use of these words during conflict/jealousy discussions (Table 1). However, results showed that boys and girls who reported higher levels of conflict used the pronoun “you” more often, only in the conflict/jealousy discussion and not the party planning discussion (Figure 1). Specifically, we found actor effects indicating that self-reported levels of conflict related to one’s own use of “you”. Partner effects were also found, indicating that self-reported levels of conflict related to their partners’ use of “you”.
These results indicate that adolescents who are in conflictual relationships are using the pronoun “you” more often. These findings suggest that it is possible to expose potentially pernicious romantic relationships by observing couples during naturalistic conversation. Identifying these higher-risk relationships in adolescents is crucial, as this is a developmental period in which conflictual behavior can eventually translate into lasting habits of romantic relationships and emotional adjustment (Ha et al., 2014; Wolfe et al., 1998).

Authors

• Ciera Arnett, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Thao Ha, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jasmine Sutton, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Adam A. Rogers, Brigham Young University
  Non-Presenting Author