No, No, It's Really Good: Daniel Vieth's "That Sucks?"

When an individual chooses to confide in someone about his or her depression, the quality of the confidant’s response is crucial.

In “‘That Sucks?’: An Evaluation of the Communication Competence and Enacted Social Support of Response Messages to Depression Disclosures in College-Aged Students,” Daniel Vieth tests the effect that the confidant's response has on the disclosing individual.

After reviewing recent communication literature on depression and assessing applicable analytic tools, Vieth designed his study to evaluate two hypotheses. First, that the higher the communication competence of the confidant’s response, the greater social support the disclosing individual perceives. And second, that there is a relationship between the likelihood of depressive symptoms and how individuals evaluate the enacted social support of depression disclosure responses.

Vieth’s study points to the need for competent responses to depression disclosures, as his results indicated that greater competence does lead to higher levels of perceived enacted social support, an important step in the process of recovery for those with depression.

Vieth is the first JMURJ Editorial Board member to have his work published in JMURJ. Reflecting on his efforts on the JMURJ board to publish and publicize JMURJ Volume 2 during the 2014-2015 academic year, he remembers, “It was a lot of fun being a part of the process. I learned so much from the experience, as well as from the fascinating research submitted.”

Now that Vieth has seen the academic publishing process from both sides, he can reflect on collaborating with JMURJ editors to revise his own work for publication: “The word I would use to describe how I initially felt when my article was published would be scholarly.”

Read Daniel Vieth's “‘That Sucks?’: An Evaluation of the Communication Competence and Enacted Social Support of Response Messages to Depression Disclosures in College-Aged Students" in JMURJ Volume 3

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Daniel Vieth graduated in 2015 with a degree in Communication Studies and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in the subject at JMU. He currently works as a graduate assistant for Digital Communication Consulting and for the School of Communication Studies, and as a student writer for Creative Services. In his free time, he enjoys recording his own music and playing bass for the local progressive metal band Binturong, as well as indulging in all things Game of Thrones, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings.