Non-clinical, on-demand peer-to-peer (PtP) support apps have become increasingly popular over the past several years. Although not as pervasive as general self-help apps, these PtP support apps are usually free and instantly connect individuals through live texting with a non-clinical volunteer who has been minimally trained to listen and offer support. To date, there is little empirical work that examines whether and how using an on-demand PtP support app improves emotional well-being.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCommunication scholarship is inherently interdisciplinary, and the study of listening by those claiming Communication Studies as their home is no different. This article traces the study of listening as a positive communication process from its roots in understanding how students comprehend lecture-based discourse to current explorations of its constitutive potential. In particular, it traces three strands of communication-focused listening scholarship: the study of what listening is, the study of what listeners do, and the study of how listening creates the very contexts that allow its operation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeveral theoretical perspectives suggest that dyadic experiences are distinguished by patterns of behavioral change that emerge during interactions. Methods for examining change in behavior over time are well elaborated for the study of change along continuous dimensions. Extensions for charting increases and decreases in individuals' use of specific, categorically defined behaviors, however, are rarely invoked.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis article develops a conceptualization and measure of cognitive health sophistication--the complexity of an individual's conceptual knowledge about health. Study 1 provides initial validity evidence for the measure--the Healthy-Unhealthy Other Instrument--by showing its association with other cognitive health constructs indicative of higher health sophistication. Study 2 presents data from a sample of low-income adults to provide evidence that the measure does not depend heavily on health-related vocabulary or ethnicity.
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