Running head: COMMUNICATION WORKSHOP AND ROOMMATE SATISFACTION

Communication Workshop and Roommate Satisfaction

Myriah L. Wiltrout
Northern Illinois University

COMMUNICATION WORKSHOP AND ROOMMATE SATISFACTION

Abstract
Heckert, Niebling, & Ross (1999) found that 61% of participants were selecting
Roommate Conflict as a major source of stress. The current study is looking to discover
whether or not a workshop on communication skills would affect the roommate satisfaction of
college students. Roommate satisfaction will be tested by an instrument used in a study by
Anderson and Martin (1992) that investigates three variables found to affect roommate
satisfaction, willingness to communicate, communication competency, and verbal
aggressiveness. The study will be experimental, a treatment group will be exposed to the
workshop and the control group will not. These two groups data will then be collected at the end
of their first semester and compared.

COMMUNICATION WORKSHOP AND ROOMMATE SATISFACTION

Communication Workshop and Roommate Rapport

Its no secret that roommate conflict is a common issue at many universities. It can be
stressful for young students to be moved into a confined space with people who are often
complete strangers. In a study by Heckert, Niebling, & Ross (1999), 61% of participants reported
Roommate Conflict as a major cause of stress in their time at college. Students have enough to
stress about (homework, homesickness, financial struggles) without having to also stress about
roommate conflict. Roommate conflict is a common problem, but why is it a concern?
Students who are satisfied with their roommates may tend to feel more satisfied with
many aspects of college. Roommate conflict may negatively affect a students roommate
satisfaction, which in turn could affect a students academic success. According to Katlyn Hales
study (2011), she states that Connectedness is believed to have a large impact on a students
success. and roommate conflict is an additional faucet of connectedness. Therefore,
roommate satisfaction may play a role in a students overall satisfaction of a university and a
students academic success or persistence.
So, what is being done to help students conquer roommate conflict? In a study done by
Anderson and Martin (1992), three variables were found to affect roommate rapport, willingness
to communicate, verbal aggression, and communication competency. The current study is
specifically looking at whether or not a workshop that teaches students skills related to the above
mentioned variables would affect roommate satisfaction.
RQ: Do students who receive treatment A (a communication workshop) feel that they
have a higher level of roommate satisfaction than students who do not receive treatment A.
This study would be done by comparing two groups of students (group A being
the group of students that attend the communication workshop, and group B being the

COMMUNICATION WORKSHOP AND ROOMMATE SATISFACTION

control group that does not attend the workshop) to see if one group reports having a
higher level of roommate satisfaction than the other. The variables involved in this
study include,
1. Communication Workshop (Independent Variable)
2. Roommate Satisfaction (Dependent Variable)

The Communication Workshop will be co-conducted by a faculty member of NIU with

experience teaching communication skills, and a residence hall staff member who has experience
with mediating roommate conflict. Roommate Satisfaction will be tested by a communication
satisfaction scale created by Hect (1983).
The findings from this study will assist student affairs professionals in deciding whether
or not requiring residents to attend a workshop on communication skills would assist in creating
a more positive living environment for students.

Literature Review
Theoretical Framework
The Learning Partnerships Model (LPM) by Marcia Magolda (2004) is a model by which
we can assist students academically and help students in reaching self-authorship. The LPM has
two distinct parts, challenge and support. The concept of the LPM is to challenge students to
engage in and learn about the world around them, as well as support students so that they feel
they have the capacity to learn. The LPM will be used in the current study in two ways, first, as
support towards the research question that a workshop could possibly improve roommate
satisfaction, as well as a framework for the way that students will be taught within the workshop
itself.

COMMUNICATION WORKSHOP AND ROOMMATE SATISFACTION

Roommate Conflict
Roommate Conflict is being examined in the current study because roommate conflict
could lead to low levels of roommate satisfaction. Roommate Conflict was reported as a high
stress inducer in a study done by Ross, Niebling, and Heckert (2008). In this study 61% of
participants, who were college students, reported roommate conflict as a source of major stress.
This being said one might assume that low roommate satisfaction may also be a major source of
stress for students. It is also mentioned in this study that stress may have detrimental effects on
health and academic performance (Ross, Niebling, & Heckert, 2008).
Roommate Satisfaction
. A study by Duran, Hawken and Kelly (1991) suggests that students who think
themselves and their roommates to have high communication competency, have a better
roommate rapport than those who dont. That being said, one might then assume that a
communication course may allow both roommates to feel more competent in themselves and
their roommates when it comes to communication competency, and therefore they may have
higher roommate satisfaction and a less stressful living environment.
A study done by Matthew Martin and Carolyn Anderson (1992) suggests that three
variables of communication affect roommate satisfaction. These three variables include
willingness to communicate, interpersonal communication competence, and verbal
aggressiveness.

Willingness to Communicate

COMMUNICATION WORKSHOP AND ROOMMATE SATISFACTION

A positive relationship between any two individuals (roommates included), calls for both parties
to be willing to communicate (McCroskey & Richmond, 1990). A study by Deutsch, Sullivan,
Sage, and Basile (1991) suggests that roommates who talked with each other more often had a
higher roommate satisfaction. Presenting this information to students in the workshop may in
itself be enough to encourage students to be more willing to communicate and therefore increase
their roommate satisfaction.
Interpersonal Communication Competence
Being taught different communication skills has also been found to be important to positive
relationships. A study by Waldo (1989) found that roommates relationship skills and satisfaction
was increased by being trained on empathetic and expressive behaviors. These two skills, as well
as other communication skills will be focused on within the communication workshop.
Verbal Aggressiveness
In the study by Martin and Anderson (1992), they cited Infante and Wiggly (1986) by stating
Verbally aggressive communication consists of messages that are intended to hurt the selfconcept of others. People who experience verbal aggression directed at them may respond with
verbal aggression, therefore creating a cycle (Infante & Wiggly, 1986). Once roommates get into
this cycle it can be hard to repair the relationship. This is why it may be important to look at a
proactive approach, and require a workshop, rather than waiting for conflict to arise and then
mediating.
The Martin and Anderson study (1992) had three different hypotheses; if both roommates
had high levels of willingness to communicate roommate satisfaction would be higher, if both
roommates had high levels of communication competence roommate satisfaction would be
higher, and if both roommates had low levels of verbal aggressiveness, roommate satisfaction

COMMUNICATION WORKSHOP AND ROOMMATE SATISFACTION

would be higher. The first two hypotheses were partially supported and the last was supported.
The current study will use the communication variables suggested to affect roommate
satisfaction by Martin and Anderson (1992) as a structure for the treatment administered to the
treatment group (communication workshop).
Method
The goal of this study is to investigate the research question in order to provide
information to student affairs professionals. Depending on the outcome of the study, this
information could potentially lead to housing professionals requiring a communication workshop
for all incoming freshmen. The research question is attempting to discover whether or not having
students participate in a communication workshop will make students feel they have higher
levels of satisfaction with their roommates. In order to find an answer to this question a
quantitative study will be done with an experimental research design. One group of students will
experience the workshop, while the other group will not. At the end of the first semester, the
researcher will then compare the two groups in order to see if there is a difference in roommate
satisfaction between them. This difference or lack there off, will provide an answer to the
research question. As stated above, the variables for this study are the treatment or workshop
(independent variable) and students roommate satisfaction (dependent variable).

Participants

COMMUNICATION WORKSHOP AND ROOMMATE SATISFACTION

The target population for the current study is all college students in America who live in
residence halls with only one roommate. The accessible population would be students at NIU
that live in residence halls with only one roommate. The accessible population for the current
study is based on the method of sampling that will be used, which is convenience sampling. The
anticipated sample size will be about 2,000 students. The incentive for participating is the
possibility of being placed in the treatment group and being permitted to move into the residence
halls early. This creates a threat to external validity, as the students who sign up to participate
may somehow be different from the target population based on their interest in the incentive. If
the study could be done without the incentive, this threat would be illuminated.
Instrumentation
Roommate satisfaction will be measured by the same scale used in the study by Martin
and Anderson (1992), a Communication Satisfaction scale (Hect, 1983). The survey will be
administered to all participants at the end of their first semester (roughly 3 months after the
treatment group received the treatment). The survey will be administered via email. The data will
then be collected and measured via Hects Satisfaction Scale (1983).
Procedures
The current study would be conducted within residence halls at Northern Illinois
University. The accessible population would be asked to participate in the study via email. Those
who showed interest would be emailed an informed consent form, a description of the study, a
list of all benefits and risks, and a statement that their personal information will not be used or
distributed outside of the study. Participants would then be asked to mail/fax a signed copy of the
consent form back to the researcher. The students who agreed to participate in the study and sent

COMMUNICATION WORKSHOP AND ROOMMATE SATISFACTION

in their consent forms would then be randomly assigned to either the treatment group or the
control group and would be notified via email of which group they had been assigned to.
Students who were assigned to the control group would be asked to move in two days early in
order to participate in the treatment. The day after the treatment group moved in the treatment
(communication workshop) would be conducted.
The workshop would begin with an introduction to the topic and splitting the room up
into pairs to work with. The NIU housing professional would then conduct an ice breaker to start
off the workshop. After the ice breaker the communication trained faculty member would
conduct training on the following topics:
1. Willingness to communicate
2. Communication Competency
a. Empathetic Behavior
b. Expressive Behavior
c. Other
3. Verbal Aggressiveness
At the end of the first semester a survey would be distributed to all participants via email.
Participants would complete the survey and email it back to the researcher. The data would be
collected and then analyzed. All participants would be invited to a debriefing session at the
beginning of the following semester.

Proposed Analytical Approach

Once the data is collected, the researcher will compile all of the surveys into two groups,
treatment group and control group. The researcher would then use Hects (1983) Communication

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Satisfaction Scale in order to measure the data collected. Roommate Satisfaction in this study is a
continuous dependent variable, therefore the researcher will compare the post scores for both
groups with a t-test. The mean value and standard deviation of each group would be found and
compared. For the mean value of each group a bar graph could be used with one column
representing the control group and the other the treatment group.
Limitations
One of the limitations to this study is that the accessible population is limited to students
at NIU. There is a chance that students from NIU are somehow different form the target
population. It would be beneficial for this study to be conducted at multiple universities in order
to increase its external validity.
Another limitation to this study is that only students who have one roommate/ who live in
residence halls are being studied. There are students in residence halls that have more than one
roommate and students who have roommates but do not live in residence halls. This study is not
designed to study these students. It would be beneficial to this study for supplementary studies to
be done that address students with more than one roommate or students with roommates that do
not live in residence halls.
Lastly, the incentive could create another limitation for this study. Since the incentive for
being in the study is the ability to move into the residence halls early, the students who agree to
participate in the study may somehow be different from the target population. Another way to
conduct this study without the incentive is to require all students to participate in the workshop
one year (treatment group) and then compare this group to the year before that did not have to

COMMUNICATION WORKSHOP AND ROOMMATE SATISFACTION

participate in the workshop (control group). Though, this model creates the limitation that
students may be someone different from one year to the next.

References

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Anderson, C. M., Martin, M. M. (1992). Roommate Similarity: Are Roommates Who are Similar
in Their Communication Traits More Satisfied?. Communication Research Reports, 12,
46-52.
Deutsch, F. M., Sullivan, L., Sage, C, & Basile, N. (1991). The relations among talking, liking,
and similarity between friends. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17, 406-411.
Duran, R. L., Hawken, L., Kelly, L. (1991). The Relationship of Interpersonal Communication
Variables to Academic Success and Persistence in College. Communication Quarterly,
39, 297-308.
Hale, Katlyn M. (2011). Should I Stay or Should I Go: Roommate Satisfaction (Master's thesis,
Pacific University). Retrieved from:http://commons.pacificu.edu/spp/214

Heckert, T. M., Niebling, B. C., Ross, S. E. (1999). Sources of Stress Among College Students.
College Student Journal, 33, 312-318.
Hecht, M. L. (1978). Measures of communication satisfaction. Human Communication
Research, 4, 350-368.
Infante, D. A., & Wigley, C. J. (1986). Verbal aggressiveness: An interpersonal model and
measure. Communication Monographs, 52, 61-69.
Magolda, M. (2004). Learning partnerships: Theory and models of practice to educate for selfauthorship. Sterling, Va.: Stylus Pub.

McCroskey, J. C, & Richmond, V. P. (1990). Willingness to communicate: A cognitive view.

COMMUNICATION WORKSHOP AND ROOMMATE SATISFACTION

Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 5, 19-39.

Waldo, M. (1989). Primary prevention in university residence halls: Paraprofessional led
relationship enhancement groups for college roommates. Journal of Counseling and
Development, 67, 465-471.

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