Making Plans: Praxis Strategies for Negotiating Uncertainty–Certainty in Long-Distance Relationships

Abstract

ABSTRACT Relating at a distance can be problematic in any type of relationship (e.g., marriage, friendship, family, or work). Partners face uncertainties because of the ebb and flow of their physical presence in each other's lives, but communication strategies can help to bridge the physical discontinuities of everyday relating (Sigman, Citation1991). In this study, couple interview data, interpreted from a Relational Dialectics perspective (Baxter & Montgomery, Citation1996), reflect how making plans manages both certainty and uncertainty in 20 long-distance dating relationships (LDDRs). Three forms of praxis strategies for managing certainty-uncertainty contradictions were recognized in these data: planning as balance, planning as denial, and planning as segmentation. The author wishes to thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for their comments