Catalina Toma

Catalina L. Toma (PhD, Cornell University) is Professor of Communication Science in the Department of Communication Arts, and Director of the Center for Communication Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Catalina’s research investigates how people understand and relate to one another when interacting through communication technologies. She has a particular interest in how psychosocial vulnerabilities (e.g., anxiety, loneliness, depression) shape individuals’ use of communication technologies and the psychological outcomes they derive from it.

Research Areas: Well-being, personal relationships, social media, communication technologies

Publications

Chen, Y. A., & Toma, C. L. (2023). To Text or Talk in Person? Social Anxiety, Media Affordances, and Preferences for Texting Over Face-To-Face Communication in Dating Relationships. Media Psychology, 27(3), 428-454. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2023.2246895

Toma, C. L., Hwang, J., Kakonge, L., Morrow, E. L., Turkstra, L. S., Mutlu, B., & Duff, M. C. (2024). Does Facebook use provide social benefits to adults with traumatic brain injury? Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 27(3), 197-204. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2023.0211

Toma, C. L. (2022). Online dating and psychological wellbeing: A social compensation perspective. Current Opinion in Psychology, 46, 101331. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101331

Hwang, J., Toma, C. L., Chen, J., Shah, D. V., Gustafson, D., & Mares, M.-L. (2021). Effects of web-based social connectedness on older adults’ depressive symptoms: A two-wave cross-lagged panel study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23(1), e21275. https://doi.org/10.2196/21275

Chen, Y. A., Fan, T., Toma, C. L., & Scherr, S. (2022). International students’ psychosocial well-being and social media use at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic: A latent profile analysis. Computers in Human Behavior, 137, 107409. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2022.107409