What Do Romanian Couples Talk About on a Daily Basis? A Mixed Method Approach
What Do Romanian Couples Talk About on a Daily Basis? A Mixed Method Approach

Summary/Abstract: Communication plays an important role in the development and maintenance of close relationships. This article presents the results of examinations of daily conversation topics of 99 couples from a period of one week. The data was gathered using an electronic daily diary. The results are based on both qualitative and quantitative analyses. The findings reveal that couple’s daily conversations can be categorized into 12 categories: instrumental, leisure, affection, catching up, planning, relationship, family, private concerns, conflict, and children. Further analyses indicated no gender differences in the frequency of the topics included into these categories. However, there were differences based on the length of the participants’ relationships. In addition, some topics were more common on some days of the week. Finally, we examined daily relational satisfaction and how it was related to each category of the conversation. This study presents a novel view on Romanian couples’ day-to-day life and offers new insights for the psychologists, sociologists and social workers that are interested in the research and intervention on romantic and family relationships.

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