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This article proposes an integrative model of how attitudes about online communication are associated with relational closeness, extending the work of Ledbetter and colleagues. The model stipulates the attitudes about online communication encouraging misunderstandings between relational partners, and causing apprehension in users, negatively predicting attitudes about the ease of online communication. In turn, attitudes about online communication’s ease positively predict attitudes toward online social connection and attitudes toward online self-disclosure. Attitudes toward online social connection and self-disclosure then predict the frequency of offline and online communication, with the type of communicative goal, type of relationship, and culture moderating these associations. Offline and online communication, in turn, influences relational closeness, and that relationship is moderated by in-group identity. The model presents a unified framework with eight propositions, and generates opportunities for future research.
Bernhold et al. (Thu,) studied this question.