Tara McManus (Communication Studies) published the article “” in Journal of Applied Communication Research. The study found that when college-aged people had greater positive expected outcomes for the conversation with their friend, communication efficacy, and factual sexual health knowledge, they provided more emotional, problem-focused, and perspective-taking support to the friend. Yet, when they had lower coping efficacy or believed the friend to be unable to cope, they faulted the friend, blamed others, or distracted the friend from their sexual health uncertainty, while those with greater sexual health expertise combined with more coping efficacy engaged in less blaming, faulting, or distraction. The results underscore the importance of young people’s sexual health knowledge and relational skills for their friendships.
