Email as the key to SUCESS

Emailing your romantic partner or family member is the key to succeed in your long distance relationship. If you don't have an email account yet, get one!

A study performed in 2008 found that self-disclosure (openness), discussing social networks, and positivity were the main categories found in college students emails to family members and friends. In the study, 226 college students from several southwestern universities were asked to provide copies of interpersonal emails for one week. The study then applied Canary and Stafford's (1994) Maintenance Strategy Topology Model that deals with how people maintain their interpersonal relationships, and concluded that:

• Emails with family members and friends were most likely to exhibit the maintenance behavior of openness, social network, and positivity. In other words, emails with both family members and friends focus on maintaining the relationship and establishing positive attitudes. So go ahead, email that especial someone! 

• Romantic partners were most likely to report assurances (positive declarations), openness, and positivity. Same as with family and friends but with a little more romanticism! 

• Both romantic partners and family members reported higher proportions of assurances, which focus on communicating the importance of the relationship.   

Now that you have the evidence, email that especial someone!