Supportive communication in the context of miscarriage
Abstract
Parents bereaved by miscarriage often receive comforting messages that vary in sensitivity. The purpose of this dissertation was to develop a model that helps to explain some of the observed variation in the quality of these comforting efforts, focusing on support providers' motivation and ability to comfort, and factors that affect motivation and ability in the context of miscarriage. Five causal models were developed and tested with SEM procedures using full-information maximum likelihood estimators and latent variables. Data was collected from college students (N = 1031) who wrote comforting messages for a (hypothetical) bereaved sibling and completed measures assessing theoretically relevant factors. The results showed that a model including motivation and trait ability to comfort as primary predictors was statistically and substantively better than the alternative models tested. Thus, the findings provide a theoretically-based model of support provision in this context. They also provide insight into means of improving the quality of support bereaved parents receive.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
MacGeorge, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Communication
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