Quinten Shenk Bernhold

Communication accommodation theory (CAT; e.g., Giles et al., 2023, 2025) focuses on how speakers adjust their communication based on receivers’ group memberships, and on how receivers interpret tho...

This study addressed how communication about retirement fits in the communicative ecology model of successful aging (CEMSA). U.S. American older adults ( N = 294, M _Age = 59.27 years) reported on a memorable message they heard about retirement, as well as on their own talk about how they can be financially prepared for retirement. Older adults who wrote a memorable message with a theme of (a) saving money for retirement or (b) relaxing or enjoying life during retirement reported talking about how they can be financially prepared for retirement more than did older adults who did not write a memorable message with one of these themes. Older adults’ talk about how they can be financially prepared for retirement was indirectly associated with successful aging, via the serial mediators of positive affect about aging and aging efficacy. Talking about how one can be financially prepared for retirement may be a worthwhile theoretical addition to the CEMSA.

Relational satisfaction is “the fulfillment of positive expectations across an array of relational domains,” including domains of love, the appropriate management of conversations, and the meeting ...

Grounded in the communicative ecology model of successful aging, this study examined how memorable messages about death, dying, and the afterlife (DDA) are associated with aging experiences. In a self-report survey, older adults ( N = 300, M _age = 59.74 years) wrote a memorable message about DDA and reported on the message's motivational impact. They also reported on their affect about aging, aging efficacy, and successful aging. The memorable messages were coded into themes, and path modeling revealed that the themes of people (a) engaging in some activity after they die, (b) cherishing life, (c) leaving a legacy, and (d) experiencing eternal damnation were associated with memorable message motivational impact (MMMI). MMMI was indirectly associated with successful aging, via the serial mediators of positive affect about aging and aging efficacy. Positive affect about aging may be a crucial mediating mechanism that helps translate experiences with memorable messages into successful aging.

Prejudice occurs when somebody holds a negative attitude toward another person based on that person’s group membership. Communication accommodation theory (CAT) helps explain the conversational moves that people make as a result of prejudice, as well as how certain conversational moves might create prejudice, on the one hand, or alleviate it, on the other. In this chapter, we begin by briefly defining prejudice and distinguishing it from related concepts. We then review the main concepts and logic of CAT. Next, we explain the theory’s utility in illuminating the dynamics surrounding prejudice in the topical domains of age, religion and politics, disability, and ethnicity. Within these, we discuss how prejudice might arise as a result of nonaccommodation, as well as show how prejudice itself might lead to various nonaccommodative moves. Each topical domain includes a discussion of how scholars can advance research on prejudice. Finally, we accrue the takeaways from this analysis for introducing a new “prejudices-nonaccommodation cyclical model”.

This study expanded the communicative ecology model of successful aging (CEMSA) to include communication about religion. Older adults ( N = 272, M _Age = 64.96 years) reported on the most important memorable message about religion that has shaped their lives, as well as on their own religious communication (i.e., religious helping and seeking religious support). Memorable messages with a theme of (a) developing a personal relationship with God and (b) eternal damnation were associated with higher and lower perceptions of memorable message motivational effect, respectively. Perceived memorable message motivational effect, religious helping, and seeking religious support were indirectly associated with successful aging, via aging efficacy. Communication about religion is a worthwhile theoretical addition to the CEMSA. The use of multiple sources of data—namely the memorable message themes (as coded by outside research assistants) and subjective aging experiences (as self-reported by older adults)—is also a noteworthy methodological contribution to CEMSA research.

This dyadic study of middle-aged parents and young adult children tested if perceptions of receiving affectionate communication were associated with tendencies to (a) exceed the speed limit when driving and (b) drive after consuming alcohol. Among other findings, children’s perceptions of receiving verbal affection, nonverbal affection, and social support from their parent were negatively associated with children’s tendency to drive after consuming one or two alcoholic drinks. Applying affection exchange theory to explain engagement in risky behaviors may comprise a nascent area of the theory’s development. Future researchers can consider if the type of relational partner whose perspective is being considered (e.g. a parent versus a child) bears implications for the extent to which affectionate communication is associated with risky behaviors.

In this study, older adults’ future time perspective was examined as a moderator of the associations between their age-related communication and aging efficacy. Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that aging efficacy was consistently high when older adults viewed their future as expansive, regardless of their tendency to communicate as a gloomy ager or an engaged ager. Conversely, the tendency to communicate as a gloomy ager was negatively associated with aging efficacy for older adults who viewed their future as restricted. The tendency to communicate as an engaged ager was positively associated with aging efficacy for older adults who viewed their future as restricted. Age-related communication may increase in potency when people perceive their life as nearing an end.