FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Claire Strutzenberg, a 2018 M.A. graduate of the Department of Communication and a current doctoral student at the Pennsylvania State University, was named the winner of the National Communication Association's Master's Education Division's Top Thesis Award. Strutzenberg and her advisor, assistant professor Lindsey S. Aloia, were honored during the association's annual meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, in early November.

Strutzenberg's thesis, "The Influence of Family Cohesion and Relationship Maintenance Strategies on Stress During Students' Adjustment to College," was an ambitious study that involved weaving together multiple theoretical perspectives, collecting quantitative self-report data from first-year college students, and analyzing data using structural equation modeling procedures.

Strutzenberg's project offered compelling evidence that both family cohesion and relationship maintenance behaviors influence students' academic, social, and personal-emotional stress during the transition to college. On the strength of the theorizing, the rigor of data collection and analyses, and the value of insights gained, Strutzenberg's thesis earned this prestigious national award.

About the National Communication Association: The National Communication Association advances communication as the discipline that studies all forms, modes, media, and consequences of communication through humanistic, social scientific, and aesthetic inquiry. The association serves the scholars, teachers, and practitioners who are its members by enabling and supporting their professional interests in research and teaching. Dedicated to fostering and promoting free and ethical communication, the National Communication Association promotes the widespread appreciation of the importance of communication in public and private life, the application of competent communication to improve the quality of human life and relationships, and the use of knowledge about communication to solve human problems. For more information, visit natcom.org.