We seek to understand how the climate of courtship predicts people’s appraisals of the behavior of close friends and family members. To that end, we employ the relational turbulence model to examine the associations among intimacy, relational uncertainty, interference and facilitation from partners, and perceived network involvement. We conducted a cross‐sectional study in which 260 participants reported their perceptions of how much network members help and hinder their courtships. As we hypothesized, people perceived the least helpfulness and the most hindrance from network members at moderate levels of intimacy. Relationship uncertainty mediated the concave curvilinear association between intimacy and perceived helpfulness from network members, but interference from partners mediated the convex curvilinear association between intimacy and perceived hindrance from network members. We discuss how our findings (a) contribute to the literature on perceived network involvement, (b) illuminate nuances in perceived hindrance from network members, (c) extend the relational turbulence model, and (d) suggest the utility of educating people about how the climate of courtship may color their views of network members.

The increased usage of online cancer support groups as a resource for health-related information and social support has sparked numerous discussions about the role of online support in healthcare. However, little is known about the role of social-networking groups focused on supporting adolescents and young adults (AYAs) dealing with cancer. The current investigation report findings from a content analysis designed to explore how AYAs use an online support group to meet their psychosocial needs. Overall, members of the community focused on exchanging emotional and informational support, coping with difficult emotions through expression, describing experiences of being an AYA dealing with cancer through language (metaphors), enacting identity through evaluations of the new normal (life with and after cancer), and communicating membership as an AYA with cancer. This study highlights the unique needs of the AYA cancer community and offers a preliminary roadmap for practitioners, and network members, such as family and friends, to attempt to meet the needs of this unique community.

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Avoiding communication about cancer is common and is likely to have negative psychological health consequences for patients, yet the connection between topic avoidance and psychological well-being is not well understood. This study of women with breast cancer examined coping behaviors as mediating mechanisms through which their cancer-related topic avoidance might affect their psychological distress. Consistent with predictions, greater levels of patient topic avoidance were associated with higher levels of depression and anxiety. Results indicated that topic avoidance may decrease patients' use of emotional support and increase patients' self-blame, each of which may lead to higher levels of psychological distress.

This manuscript uses the theory of message design logics to investigate the relative sophistication of responses to disclosure of HIV status. In Study 1, 548 college students imagined a sibling revealing an HIV-positive diagnosis. Their responses to the HIV-disclosures were coded as expressive (n = 174), conventional (n = 298), or rhetorical (n = 66). Type of message produced was associated with gender and HIV aversion. In Study 2, 459 individuals living with HIV rated response messages that were taken verbatim from Study 1. Expressive messages were rated lowest in quality, and rhetorical messages were rated highest. The discussion focuses on the utility of message design logics for understanding responses to HIV disclosures and the implications for message design logics. This is the accepted version of the following article: Caughlin, J. P., Brashers, D. E., Ramey, M. E., Kosenko, K. A., Greene, Derlega, Yep, & Petronio, 2003). People often fail to disclose that they are living with HIV because of the stigma associated with the illness and concerns about how others will react (e.g., Alonzo & Reynolds, 1995;Herek, Capitanio, & Widaman, 2002), but keeping the diagnosis a secret can lead to a lack of social support, unsafe sexual behavior, and failure to seek treatment or to take medications as needed (e.g., Chesney & Smith, 1999). Stigma and lack of disclosure of HIV status are such important health concerns that they warrant counseling programs to help these individuals manage the psychological, social, and health aspects of their illness (Rintamaki, Davis, Skripkauskas, Bennett, & Wolf, 2006).Much HIV disclosure research has examined how people living with the disease decide whether to divulge their status (e.g., Derlega, Winstead, & Folk-Barron, 2000;Derlega, Winstead, Greene, Serovich, & Elwood, 2004;Sullivan, 2005). Some research also has examined disclosers' perceptions of the responses they receive when telling others about their HIV-positive diagnosis (Greene & Faulkner, 2002;Serovich, Kimberly, & Greene, 1998). Greene and Faulkner, for example, interviewed 10 female African American adolescents, who described how people responded when told about their HIV diagnosis. The responses varied considerably and included treating the participants unfavorably, having negative emotional reactions, telling others, and providing support.Understanding how people respond to disclosures about HIV-positive status is important for numerous reasons. For instance, people living with HIV often experience uncertainty about how others will react (Brashers et al., 2003). If this uncertainty contributes to anxiety about revealing the information, research describing reactions to HIV disclosures can be useful by illuminating "the issues and dilemmas that may be encountered when disclosing" (Serovich et al., 1998, p. 15). Research on responses to HIV disclosures from the perspective of the responder is also important.People who disclose an HIV-positive test result may hope for various sorts of responses from the recipien...