Identity Management in InterpersonalRelationships: ContextualizingCommunication as Central to Researchon Emerging Adulthood
Alice E. Veksler1 and Michaela D. E. Meyer1
KeywordsCommunication, Identity, Romantic relationships, Family relationships, Technology, Interpersonal Relationships
The idea for this issue began with a simple question—whatrole does communication play in emerging adulthood? Mostemerging adulthood scholarship does not center on communication.At best, communication is a variable or an impliedafterthought cast as secondary to larger issues of life stage andtransition. Although interdisciplinary approaches to emergingadulthood are expanding, communication has yet to becomepart of these larger academic discussions. The radical suggestionthat communication perhaps constitutes and even structuresemerging adulthood centers our approach in this issue.What about this particular period of life impacts communicationskills? How does emerging adulthood shape communicationpatterns? What is distinctive about emerging adulthoodfrom a communication perspective?
If children and adolescents are no longer allowed the kindof agency and direction afforded in previous generations, andparents play a larger role in shaping and defining behavioruntil emerging adulthood, it makes sense that today's emergingadults may be lacking important communication skills.Coˆte' (1996) situates emerging adulthood within cultural tensionsbetween modern and late-modern sensibilities, observingthat identity for emerging adults has become increasinglyimage oriented. Identity as image oriented directs emergingadults toward a process of ''reflexively and strategically fittingoneself into a community of 'strangers' by meeting theirapproval through the creation of the right impressions'' (p.421). The idea that identity is a process warrants a subsequentlink to communication—emerging adults utilize specificcommunicative strategies in order to manage their identity.Emerging adulthood thus becomes the training ground for navigatinginterpersonal relationships with family, romantic partners,friends, and potential employers. In fact, emerging adulthoodmay be the most important time developmentally for the establishmentof positive (or negative) interpersonal communicationpatterns that continue throughout the life course.
The articles assembled for this issue examine communicationas central to emerging adulthood. These projects aremethodologically diverse, highlighting the value of multipleparadigmatic perspectives. Our authors identified three majortopics where communication plays a central role in identitymanagement for emerging adults; relationships with peers,relationships with parents, and the use of technology. Communicationplays a pivotal role in the establishment, management,and dissolution of interpersonal relationships inemerging adulthood. Arnett (2004) observes that for emergingadults, ''the late teens and early twenties become a time forexploring their options, falling in and out of love with differentpeople, and gaining sexual experience'' (p. 73). Emergingadults are also navigating transitions from high school to collegeor the workforce, and as a result, their day-to-day interpersonalrelationships are changing as well. Knight (2014)examines friends with benefits relationships (FWBRs) and thecommunication patterns that emerge in this interpersonal context.Perhaps her most intriguing finding is that participantsidentified communication as work—a process of constantimage management wherein individuals were positioningthemselves in relationship to their partner as well as in referenceto their own (and cultural) expectations about FWBRs.In a different context, Kerrick and Thorne (2014) examinerelational talk within close friendships, specifically notingthat identity positioning at the micro level of communicationis common during emerging adulthood. What these studiesindicate is that much more needs to be done on conceptualizinghow communication functions interpersonally as part ofsocial relationships and, in particular, how rich qualitativeapproaches to emerging adult research will enhance ourunderstanding of communication at this life stage.
