COMMUNICATIVE RESPONSES TO THE PAINFUL SELF-DISCLOSURES OF FAMILIAL AND NON-FAMILIAL OLDER ADULTS

Data from 365 college students were used to assess young adults ’ com-municative responses to older persons ’ painful self-disclosures (PSDs). Coupland, Coupland, and Giles (1991) proposed that recipients of PSD may respond to such disclosures via a variety of “next moves. ” These responses may broadly be considered to reflect forms of pro-social engagement, passive disengagement, and active disengagement. We investigated whether young adults ’ tendency to use certain responses to PSD were influenced by their affective reactions to PSD, their communicative background and charac-teristics, and the sociorelational context of the encounter in which PSD occurred. Results are discussed with respect to their implications for inter-generational interaction, and interpreted through the lens of communication accommodation theory. Given the quite negative views young adults hold of seniors (Kite, Stockdale, Whitney, & Johnson, 2005), it is not surprising that young adults feel less satis-fied when talking with elders than with age peers. A common recommendation regarding how older adults might adapt their communication to better suit younger persons is that they be less negative (Williams & Giles, 1996). This may reflec