[Commlist] Invitation to Contribute to Relational Minds: Interpersonal Communication, Emotion, and Mental Health

*Call for Chapters*

*Book Title:*

*RELATIONAL MINDS: INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION, EMOTION, AND MENTAL HEALTH*

*Editors:*

Dr Abdulgaffar Arikewuyo, Prof. Lambe Kayode Mustapha & Prof. Saudat 
Salah Abdulbaqi

*Publisher:*

*Palgrave Macmillan*/(under negotiation)/

*Overview*

How do our everyday conversations shape our emotional wellbeing? How do 
parents, partners, peers, colleagues, and communities help us cope, or 
intensify our stress, through the ways they speak, listen, and respond? 
And how are these relational dynamics transforming in an era marked by 
economic precarity, digital saturation, migration, loneliness, and 
shifting social norms? Interpersonal Communication, Emotion, and Mental 
Health**explores these urgent questions by bringing interpersonal 
communication research into a wide-ranging dialogue with psychology, 
mental health scholarship, and global lived experiences.

Across childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and later life, communication 
plays a defining role in attachment, resilience, conflict, identity, 
care, trauma, and healing. Yet major communication textbooks rarely 
examine mental health as an organising frame, while clinical fields 
often overlook the communicative practices that shape coping, 
vulnerability, and support. This edited volume fills that gap. It offers 
a multidimensional, culturally grounded, and theoretically rich 
investigation into how communication; face-to-face, mediated, and 
technologically supported, becomes a pathway to wellbeing or distress.  
We invite contributions that rethink the relationship between human 
interaction and mental health, drawing from diverse global contexts, 
interdisciplinary methods, and both established and emerging theoretical 
traditions.

*Call for Contributions*

We welcome chapters from scholars, practitioners, mental-health 
professionals, communication and media scholars, educators, counsellors, 
and interdisciplinary researchers whose work advances understanding of 
how interpersonal communication shapes emotional health throughout the 
lifespan.

Submissions may include:

  * Theoretical analyses
  * Empirical studies
  * Case studies or fieldwork
  * Practice-based reflections
  * Cross-cultural or comparative work
  * Community-based or participatory research
  * Narratives, interviews, or mixed-method approaches

Chapters should be 5,000–7,000 words (including references) and 
demonstrate scholarly rigour, originality, and conceptual clarity.

*Themes and Topics*

We encourage you to focus and organise your chapter under one of the 
sections below and indicate the selected section upon submission.

*Section 1: Foundations of Relational Wellbeing*

  * Emotion talk, empathy, and supportive communication as predictors of
    mental health
  * Attachment processes and parental communication across
    socio-cultural contexts
  * Communication habits that promote, or hinder resilience
  * The psychology of listening, validation, self-disclosure, and
    co-regulation
  * Stress, coping, and emotion regulation through interpersonal 
interaction
  * Power, inequality, and the communicative dynamics of vulnerability

*Section 2: Communication, Emotion, and Mental Health in Childhood and 
Adolescence*

  * Caregiver–child communication and early emotional development
  * Peer interaction, bullying, exclusion, and adolescent identity
  * Communication challenges among neurodivergent children and youth
  * How schools shape wellbeing through teacher communication
  * Digital youth cultures: friendships, conflicts, and emotional
    expression online
  * Family conflict, divorce, migration, and intergenerational
    narratives of stress

*Section 3: Young Adulthood, Intimacy, and Relational Resilience*

  * Romantic communication: intimacy, conflict, attachment, and
    emotional labour
  * Mental health in university and early-career transitions
  * Loneliness, social comparison, and self-presentation in digital spaces
  * Peer networks, solidarity, and the communication of care
  * Friendship maintenance, identity formation, and psychological wellbeing
  * Communication challenges among migrants, refugees, and diaspora youth

*Section 4: Communication, Work, and Emotional Health in Adulthood*

  * Relational stress, burnout, and emotional labour at work
  * Communication in high-pressure or traumatic professions (e.g.,
    journalism, healthcare, policing)
  * Organisational cultures of silence, stigma, and disclosure
  * Work–family balance, caregiving, and marital communication
  * Professional support, mentorship, and collaborative relationships
  * Communication inequalities shaped by gender, class, disability, or
    cultural norms

*Section 5: Later Life, Care, and Intergenerational Communication*

  * Emotional wellbeing among older adults: loneliness, connection, and
    identity
  * Communication in age-related health decline, dementia, and chronic
    illness
  * Family caregiving, burden, and relational strain
  * Intergenerational storytelling, memory, and emotional meaning
  * Cohabitation, companionship, and late-life intimacy
  * Community and religious networks as sources of emotional support

*Section 6: Distress, Trauma, and Communication in Contexts of 
Vulnerability*

  * Interpersonal communication in contexts of conflict, displacement,
    or disaster
  * Stigma, silence, and disclosure around mental illness
  * Domestic violence, emotional abuse, and communicative patterns of
    control
  * Community resilience, collective trauma, and healing practices
  * Communication strategies in grief, bereavement, and loss
  * Faith-based, cultural, and indigenous approaches to emotional wellbeing

*Section 7: Interventions, Technology, and the Future of Relational Health*

  * Communication-centred interventions in schools, families,
    communities, and workplaces
  * Online therapy, digital support groups, and telecommunication in
    mental-health care
  * Social media, mediated communication, and wellbeing
  * Emerging technologies (apps, chatbots, AI mental-health tools)
  * Cross-cultural communication training for counsellors and clinicians
  * Future directions for relational wellbeing research and policy

*Submission Process*

Please submit:

 1. *An abstract (200–250 words)*
    – outlining the chapter’s rationale, objectives, methods, and
    contributions
 2. *A short biography (maximum 150 words)*
    – highlighting expertise and relevant experience

Email all submissions to:
📧(book.project26 /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(book.project26 /at/ gmail.com)>

For enquiries, you may also contact:

  * Dr Abdulgaffar Arikewuyo– (arikewuyo /at/ gmail.com)
    <mailto:(arikewuyo /at/ gmail.com)>
  * Prof. Lambe Mustapha – (klm /at/ unilorin.edu.ng) <mailto:(klm /at/ unilorin.edu.ng)>
  * Prof. Saudat Salah Abdulbaqi– (saubaqi /at/ unilorin.edu.ng)
    <mailto:(saubaqi /at/ unilorin.edu.ng)>

*Deadlines*

  * *Abstract Submission Deadline:*Wednesday, 31^st December 2025
  * *Notification of Acceptance:*Friday, 30th January 2026
  * *Submission of First Draft:*Friday, 28th May 2026
  * *Final Chapter Deadline:*Friday, 31th July 2026

*About the Editors*

Dr Abdulgaffar Arikewuyo is a respected scholar and media professional, 
serving as a lecturer at Birmingham City University International 
College. His research spans communication psychology, interpersonal 
communication, media and journalism. He brings an extensive background 
in teaching, broadcast practice, and interdisciplinary communication 
research. Professor Lambe Mustapha is a distinguished scholar in the 
Department of Mass Communication at the University of Ilorin. A former 
Post-Doctoral Teaching Fellow at Universiti Sains Malaysia, he currently 
serves as a Scientific Advisor at RUDN University, Moscow. He has held 
various administrative roles, including Head of Department and 
Examination Commissioner. Prof. Saudat Salah Abdulbaqi is a Professor of 
Mass Communication at the University of Ilorin. Her expertise includes 
development communication, gender communication, relationship studies, 
and counselling. A Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, 
she also runs a marriage counselling clinic and has wide-ranging 
experience in public speaking, media practice, and organisational 
communication. Their combined expertise adds substantial value to 
Interpersonal Communication, Emotion, and Mental Health/./



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