Presentation Schedule
What Is Communication Apprehension: A Reconceptualization of the Construct as Identity-Evaluative Meaning (111203)
Session Chair: Diyako Rahmani
Wednesday, 11 November 2026 14:25
Session: Session 3
Room: Room C (4F)
Presentation Type:Oral Presentation
Communication Apprehension (CA) — defined as fear or anxiety associated with real or anticipated communicative participation — is among the most studied constructs in communication research, yet what fundamentally creates apprehension remains theoretically underspecified. Prevailing context-based accounts classify CA across situational categories but cannot explain why similar situations are threatening for some individuals and affirming for others. Drawing on communication theories that treat interaction as a site of identity display and evaluation, this paper reconceptualizes CA as an anticipatory identity-evaluative appraisal: the meaning individuals assign, in advance, to whether communicative participation will affirm or threaten their valued self-definitions. Apprehension arises when communication is construed as identity-threatening; ease emerges when it is construed as identity-affirming. Two studies test this account. Study 1 (N = 1,343) employs a cross-validated latent-structure design comparing context-based, valence-based, and method-based representations of CA using the PRCA-24. Results show that CA indicators organize by evaluative valence — positive (identity-affirming) versus negative (identity-threatening) — rather than by nominal communicative contexts. Study 2 (N = 394) tests whether these valence dimensions operate within a broader identity-evaluative system. Structural equation modeling demonstrates that positive and negative evaluative meanings relate to endorsement of socially valued self-views primarily through global self-esteem. An asymmetry emerges: identity-affirming meanings show stronger, more stable associations with self-esteem than identity-threatening meanings. Together, the findings support reconceptualizing CA as identity-evaluative meaning rather than context-specific anxiety, repositioning communicative contexts as carriers of evaluative meaning rather than latent organizing dimensions.
Authors:
Diyako Rahmani, Massey University, New Zealand
Stephanie E. Kelly, North Carolina A&T State University, United States
Michelle T. Violanti, University of Tennessee, United States
About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Diyako Rahamni is a senior lecturer of communication and analytics at Massey University, New Zealand.
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