Communication in Positive Stepfamily Relationships
A research team in the Department of Communication Studies is studying the communication stepparents and stepchildren who have an overall positive relationship with one another.
For a person to be included in the study they must meet the following criteria:
- You are at least 19 years old.
- You have an overall positive relationship with at least one of your stepchildren.
- Your stepfamily must have started no less than four years ago.
- You must be currently married or living with the parent of the stepchild with whom you have an overall positive relationship.
- The stepchild we are going to talk about needs to have lived with you at least 50% of the time for a minimum of a year before the stepchild was 18 years old.
If you have any questions about you or others meeting the qualifications for this study, please feel free to email the research team at dobresearch@unl.edu.
If you meet the criteria on the list above, you may take part in an interview that consists of three parts. First, we will ask you general questions about you and the members of your family and stepfamily, including age, ethnicity, number of family members. Second, we will ask you tell us the story of how your stepfamily developed, and then to identify turning points. By "turning point," we mean the significant or pivotal events that were important in bringing your relationship with your stepchild to where it is today. We will draw these on a graph together so we can see the development of your relationship. Third, we will ask you some questions about your communication with your stepchild.
The entire process will take approximately 60-90 minutes. These interviews will take place in a private office on the campus of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, in another location you choose, or via telephone or video conferencing software if there is a distance concern.
If you agree to participate you will be asked to email or call us to set up a time and place to be interviewed. Interviews will be audio recorded, you will be asked to answer a number of open-ended questions related to your experiences with your stepchild.
All responses to these interview questions will be kept confidential and at no time will your identity be revealed in the analysis and or reporting of research results. This is a multi-institutional study, meaning that part of our research team is at Arizona State University and Arkansas State University. These researchers will also have access to your responses.
Participation is completely voluntary. At any time throughout the interview you may choose not to answer any question(s) and you are free to leave at any time that you do not feel comfortable. If you are a UNL student and your instructor agrees, you will receive extra credit in this course. Your instructor will be informed that you participated in a research study, but the nature and topic of the study will not be revealed. If you do not wish to participate in this study but still wish to receive extra credit, a separate but equal assignment will be made available to you by your instructor.
Thanks for your consideration of involvement in this study.
If you are interested in participating, please contact the research team at dobresearch@unl.edu