Close Friendship Maintenance on Facebook: The Relationship between Dialectical Contradictions, Facebook Relational Maintenance Behaviors, and Relationship Satisfaction in the U.S. and Malaysia A dissertation submitted to the College of Communication and Information of Kent State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Tengku Siti Aisha December, 2014 Dissertation written by Tengku Siti Aisha B.H.S., International Islamic University Malaysia, 2002 M.S., Putra University Malaysia, 2007 Ph.D., Kent State University, 2014 Approved by _____________________________ Janet Meyer, Ph.D., Chair, Doctoral Dissertation Committee _____________________________ Mei-Chen Lin, Ph.D., Member, Doctoral Dissertation Committee _____________________________ Jeffrey Child, Ph.D., Member, Doctoral Dissertation Committee _____________________________ Yin Zhang, Ph.D., Member, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Accepted by _____________________________ Don Wicks, Ph.D., Chair, Doctoral Studies Committee _____________________________ AnnMarie LeBlanc, M.F.A., Dean, College of Communication and Information Table of Contents Page TABLE OF CONTENTS................................................................................................................ iii LIST OF TABLES ...........................................................................................................................v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. vii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1 Problem Statement and Rationale of Study ............................................................ 4 Individual Differences in Facebook Maintenance Behaviors ..................... 6 Cross-cultural Variability in Facebook Maintenance Behaviors ................ 7 Dialectical Contradictions and Facebook Maintenance Behaviors ............ 8 II. LITERATURE REVIEW, HYPOTHESES, RESEARCH QUESTIONS ................... 10 Theoretical Perspective: Relational Dialectics Theory ......................................... 10 Main Assumptions of the Theory ............................................................. 10 Empirical Support for Relational Dialectics Theory ................................ 16 Dialectical Contradictions in Friendships ................................................. 20 Dialectical Contradictions and Relational Maintenance ........................... 26 Relational Maintenance......................................................................................... 31 Definition and Perspectives on Relational Maintenance .......................... 31 Types of Relational Maintenance Behaviors ............................................ 33 Mediated Versus Face-to-Face Relational Maintenance Behaviors ......... 38 Relational Maintenance Behaviors in Social Networking Websites ........ 43 Individual Differences in Relational Maintenance Behaviors .................. 49 Cross-cultural Differences in Relational Maintenance Behaviors ............ 54 Relational Maintenance Behaviors in SNS and Relationship Outcomes.. 61 Hypotheses and Research Questions .................................................................... 64 III. METHODOLOGY...................................................................................................... 79 Method .................................................................................................................. 79 Procedures ................................................................................................. 79 Participants................................................................................................ 81 Measures ................................................................................................... 84 Independent variable measures ..................................................... 84 Dependent variable measure ......................................................... 94 IV. RESULTS ................................................................................................................... 96 Means .................................................................................................................... 96 Individual Differences in Facebook Maintenance Behaviors ............................... 99 Cross-cultural Variability in Facebook Maintenance Behaviors ........................ 110 Intensity of Facebook Use and Facebook Maintenance Behaviors .................... 123 iii Relationship between Dialectical Contradictions, Facebook Maintenance Behavior, and Relationship Satisfaction ............................................................. 124 V. DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................ 139 Summary and Implications ................................................................................. 139 Individual Differences in Facebook Maintenance Behaviors ................. 139 Cross-cultural Variability in Facebook Maintenance Behaviors ............ 143 Intensity of Facebook Use and Facebook Maintenance Behaviors ........ 147 Relationship between Dialectical Contradictions, Facebook Maintenance Behaviors, and Relationship Satisfaction ............................................... 148 Limitations and Directions for Future Research ................................................. 155 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................ 159 A. Measure of Demographic Information...................................................................... 160 B. Measure of Friendship Characteristics...................................................................... 161 C. Facebook Intensity Scale .......................................................................................... 162 D. Friendship Maintenance Scale for Friend (Face-to-face) ......................................... 163 E. Friendship Maintenance Scale for Friend (Facebook) .............................................. 164 F. Friendship Maintenance Scale for Respondent (Facebook) ..................................... 166 G. Dialectical Contradiction Scale................................................................................. 168 H. Horizontal and Vertical Individualism and Collectivism Scale................................ 169 I. Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS) ..................................................................... 170 J. Correlation Matrix for Selected Independent Variables with the Dependent Variable ................................................................................................................................... 171 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 172 iv List of Tables Table Page 1. Means, Standard Deviations, and Cronbach Alphas for All Variables............................. 97 2. Multiple Regression Analyses Showing the Effect of Age on the Use of Facebook Maintenance Behaviors with Intensity of Facebook Use Held Constant ....................... 101 3. Comparison of Friendship Dyads in the Respondent’s Use of Facebook Maintenance Behaviors (ANOVA) ...................................................................................................... 104 4. Comparison of Friendship Dyads in Facebook Communication Frequencies (ANOVA) ......................................................................................................................................... 107 5. Comparison of Friendship Dyads in the Respondent’s Use of Facebook Features (ANOVA)........................................................................................................................ 109 6. Cross-cultural Variability in Facebook Maintenance Behaviors by the Respondent (Independent sample t-tests) ........................................................................................... 111 7. Comparison of Facebook Maintenance Behaviors by the Respondent Across Cultural Value Orientation (ANOVA).......................................................................................... 117 8. Comparison of Relational Maintenance Behaviors by the Respondent Across Channel of Interactions for Malaysians (Paired sample t-test).......................................................... 121 9. Comparison of Relational Maintenance Behaviors by the Respondent Across Channel of Interactions for Americans (Paired sample t-test)........................................................... 123 10. Correlation between Intensity of Facebook Use and Facebook Maintenance Behaviors by the Respondent ................................................................................................................ 124 v 11. Summary of Regression Analysis for Predicting Relationship Satisfaction in Close Friendships ...................................................................................................................... 126 12. Summary of Findings Pertaining to the Research Questions and Hypotheses of the Study ......................................................................................................................................... 134 vi Acknowledgments Writing this dissertation has been a lengthy and challenging journey, and without a few important individuals,