Nonverbal and Verbal Approach Behaviors Related to Reported and Perceived Support Seeking Goals in Conversations

Abstract

This study investigated interaction behaviors associated with young adult children’s desire to obtain emotion‐ and problem‐focused support in conversations with their mothers. It also explored the relationship between young adult children’s behaviors and mothers’ judgments that children wanted each type of support. Approach behaviors in support episodes reflect a distressed individual’s willingness to approach the problem and/or feelings about the problem. These include both negatively valenced nonverbal arousal cues and problem‐ and feeling‐related verbal disclosure. Findings provide support for the link between some nonverbal arousal cues and mothers’ perceptions that young adult children wanted problem‐focused support, but not for the expectation that children’s arousal cues would relate to their reported support goals. In contrast, verbal emotion disclosure predicted children’s desire to obtain both support types but was unrelated to mothers’ judgments.