Page 31 - Never Too Far Away? The Roles of Social Network Sites in Sojourners’ Adjustment

Romantic Relationship Network Support
So far, research on perceived social support among sojourners focused on one’s appraisal of personal outcomes (Adelman, 1988; Berry, 2003, 2006; Ward et al., 2001). I argue that the impacts of social interactions can also be extended to one’s relational outcomes, as in network support for one’s romantic relationship. Aside from perceiving social support for personal benefit, it is also possible to perceive or receive support directed to one’s romantic relationship. In this dissertation, I also investigate the impact of social interactions on relationship support (a positive subjective outcome) and, in turn, its impact on relational adjustment (Chapter 5).
Social network perspective on relationship support. A social network perspective on romantic relationships is based on the premise that romantic couples’ social networks have a substantial influence on the outcome of the relationship (Felmlee, 2001). Social networks may facilitate or lower relationship stability and intimacy via relationship-related support (Cox, Wexler, Rusbult, & Gaines, 1997; Felmlee, 2001; Visser et al., 2017). This dissertation focuses on a perceived positive influence of a couple’s social network, such as relationship support, in line with personal level perceived social support.
Drawing from communication as well as social network perspectives of relationships (e.g., Albrecht & Adelman, 1987; Felmlee, 2001), SNSs relationship support is defined in this dissertation as relationship-related supportive communication that couple members may access and receive from their networks via SNSs. A few studies have established that individuals may also obtain and receive relationship-related information and emotional support from their networks via SNS (Muise et al., 2009; Tokunaga, 2010; Utz & Beukeboom, 2011). Social network affordances via SNS may be relatively more relevant for couples in LDRR, considering GCRR couples have relatively more geographically- intact social networks (Weiner & Hannum, 2012). However, given that SNSs are deliberately used in both LDRR and GCRR (Dainton & Stokes, 2015), it would be useful to compare these two types of relationships. Thus, in this dissertation, I will compare the impact of SNSs use in LDRR and GCRR on the access of network relationship support, and in turn, its influence on relationship closeness and stability (Chapter 5).
Introduction 29