FAMILY COMMUNICATION

Problem of Family Communication

Problem of Family Communication

Literature Review

The family is an important agent for socialization. Among the many things that individuals learn and develop in the family, of crucial importance is conflict management. The conflict management styles, used and developed over time during the conflict in the family, are carried into relationships and settings outside the family.

Communication within a family is considered the most important influence on an individual's behaviors (Ledbetter & Schrodt, 2007). It has been shown to impact several processes and outcomes such as individuals' conflict management styles (Dumlao & Botta, 2000; Fitzpatrick & Koerner, 2002b; Zhang, 2007), and psychosocial outcomes such as depression (Fitzpatrick & Koerner, 1997), risk behaviors (Anderson & Koesten, 2004), stress, self-esteem and well-being (Ledbetter & Schrodt, 2007). Fitzpatrick and Koerner (2002a) bring psychological or cognitive processes and behavioral elements together in a communicational model for the family involving relational schemas. Relational schemas are cognitive frameworks for the family that contain the family's beliefs about intimacy, individuality, affection, external factors, and how the family communicates, that is, beliefs about how much it should conform to the same ideas and how much it should allow individual self-expression. These schemas influence behaviors within the family (Fitzpatrick & Koerner, 2002a). How family members communicate during conflict, would then also be a part of the family relational schemas. The influence of family communication patterns on conflict styles has been studied in father-young adult dyads and between parents and young adults.

Conflict Styles

Conflict in interpersonal relationships is a universally experienced phenomenon as well as widely researched. Canary, Cupach, and Messman (1995) provide a comprehensive review of the literature on conflict emphasizing the complex nature of this phenomenon. Conflict can be “interruptions, disagreements, tension, defensive versus supportive communication, anxiety, tension and emotions, antagonism, negative interpersonal expressiveness, and contradictions between verbal and non verbal messages”. Conflict management refers to the resolution of conflict. It involves the approach to conflict, behaviors intended to resolve the conflict, the tendency to handle conflict and the nature of relationship between individuals in conflict. Canary et al. (1995) talk about strategies, tactics and styles in managing conflict.

Dunn and Herrera (1997) studied young children and their conflict resolution styles. They found that the same child may behave differently in different relationships. Researchers reported that children compromised with their mothers, but did not with older siblings. Bevan (2010) analyzed goal importance and conflict strategies in serial arguments among parent-child, siblings and romantic partners. The goals of arguments could range from positive relationship expressions and mutual understanding to the negative relationship expressions, dominance/control, changing or hurting the partner (Bevan, 2010). Dominance/control is important in parent-child relationships. Further, it was found that use of conflict strategies depended on how distressed/nondistressed the relationship was, rather than relationship type.

As the family grows older, there are shifts in power dynamics, which in turn may cause changes in the conflict styles of parents and children. Control is considered an important source of conflict in the family, particularly parent-child (Avtgis, Copstead, & Lanzetta, ...