The Relationship Between Interpersonal Communication Competence and Social Support Groups in Retirement Communities

Abstract

Self-report measures assessing communication competence, social network size, and social support satisfaction were administered to elders living in senior communities. The results indicated that (a) high-communication-competent individuals were not significantly more satisfied with the social support received than were low-communication-competent individuals, (b) high-communication-competent individuals maintained larger social networks than low-communication-competent individuals, and (c) social support satisfaction was a slightly better discriminator of high communication competence than was the reported number of social network members. These findings suggest that communication competence is an integral part of social support processes.