Gizem Hülür, Minxia Luo, Birthe Macdonald, Carlotta E. Grünjes
{"title":"The perceived quality of social interactions differs by modality and purpose: An event-contingent experience sampling study with older adults","authors":"Gizem Hülür, Minxia Luo, Birthe Macdonald, Carlotta E. Grünjes","doi":"10.1177/02654075231215269","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Older adults increasingly use digital technologies to communicate with others. The goal of the present study is to understand the role of interaction modality for the perceived quality of social interactions. We use data from 118 participants (age: M = 72 years, SD = 5, range = 65 to 94; 40% women), who reported on their social interactions (quality [valence, social relatedness, calmness, meaningfulness], modality [face-to-face in-person, telephone, text-based digital], and purposes [e.g., small talk, conflict]) over 21 days in an event-contingent experience sampling study that took place between April and November 2019. Text-based communication was rated lower in valence and social relatedness relative to face-to-face communication and telephone calls, and lower in meaningfulness relative to telephone calls. Face-to-face and telephone communication only differed in meaningfulness, with telephone calls being rated higher. Some of the associations between interaction modality and perceived quality were moderated by interaction purpose. For example, conflicts were perceived more negatively as indicated by lower valence, social relatedness, and calmness when they were carried out by text messages (vs. face-to-face or by telephone). Conflicts were rated higher in valence when they took place by telephone versus face-to-face. In summary, our findings suggest that the modality of daily social interactions plays an important role for their quality. We discuss implications of these findings for increasing well-being and social connectedness through technology-mediated communication.","PeriodicalId":48288,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Social and Personal Relationships","volume":"2 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Social and Personal Relationships","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075231215269","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Older adults increasingly use digital technologies to communicate with others. The goal of the present study is to understand the role of interaction modality for the perceived quality of social interactions. We use data from 118 participants (age: M = 72 years, SD = 5, range = 65 to 94; 40% women), who reported on their social interactions (quality [valence, social relatedness, calmness, meaningfulness], modality [face-to-face in-person, telephone, text-based digital], and purposes [e.g., small talk, conflict]) over 21 days in an event-contingent experience sampling study that took place between April and November 2019. Text-based communication was rated lower in valence and social relatedness relative to face-to-face communication and telephone calls, and lower in meaningfulness relative to telephone calls. Face-to-face and telephone communication only differed in meaningfulness, with telephone calls being rated higher. Some of the associations between interaction modality and perceived quality were moderated by interaction purpose. For example, conflicts were perceived more negatively as indicated by lower valence, social relatedness, and calmness when they were carried out by text messages (vs. face-to-face or by telephone). Conflicts were rated higher in valence when they took place by telephone versus face-to-face. In summary, our findings suggest that the modality of daily social interactions plays an important role for their quality. We discuss implications of these findings for increasing well-being and social connectedness through technology-mediated communication.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Social and Personal Relationships is an international and interdisciplinary peer reviewed journal that publishes the highest quality original research on social and personal relationships. JSPR is the leading journal in the field, publishing empirical and theoretical papers on social and personal relationships. It is multidisciplinary in scope, drawing material from the fields of social psychology, clinical psychology, communication, developmental psychology, and sociology.