When Lucia finds out that her friend Vina is dating the "hottest boy in school," she feels jealous. She doesn’t want Vina to know that she feels this way, so she tells Vina, "I'm happy for you. I guess you're happy, if that's really the kind of guy you want to be seen with." Lucia is using ________ communication to overcome her disappointment.

When a person uses speech which is aggressive in an indirect manner. In this form of communication there is an underlying tone of agression in the speech. The passive comment masks the aggression which the person is feeling.

Here, Lucia is jealous but cannot tell Vina directly. Her statement indicates that dating a boy like that could harm her status. Lucia indicates that the boy is not completely good and dating him could be detremental. She shows that she cares but in truth she is jealous of Vina.

Hence Lucia is using passive aggressive communication.