Transforming Conflict Through Communication in Personal, Family, and Working Relationships by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic

Part VI

TRANSFORMING COMMUNICATION PATTERNS IN PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS AND FAMILIES

Chapter 12

Family Communication Environment and Communication Behavior in Conflicts

Reports from Parents and their Young-Adult Children

Kimberly K. Harp and Lynne M. Webb

The family can serve as the primary socialization agent for children.1 Rules for interaction are established in the family and reinforced by parents and siblings, ultimately creating the family’s normative communication behavior. Parents typically serve as children’s first communicative role models; thus, the interactions with parents can greatly impact children’s communicative development.2 However, not all families socialize children to communicate in the same ways. Fitzpatrick and Koerner concluded, “Family communication environments differentially foster the development of various functional communication skills.”3

Koerner and Fitzpatrick’s theory of family communication schema explains both the differences and similarities in families’ communication patterns.4 The theory posits that family communication behaviors are governed by cognitive schemas or orientations to family communication and that the schemas can vary from family to family. According to Schrodt and Carr, “these schemata emerge from working models of how parents and children interact; and, ultimately, they shape how family members perceive their social environment and communicate within and outside the family.”5 Thus, Koerner and Fitzpatrick’s family communication schema and its accompanying family communication patterns or environments (FCEs) can influence children’s communication behaviors in the family into the children’s adulthood, after they leave their family of origin.6

Given that both theory and research support the notion that children learn many communication behaviors through family interactions, a reasonable question to pose is whether children learn conflict behaviors through interaction with parents? If so, we would expect parents and their children to report similar conflict behaviors. Additionally, we would expect children’s and parent’s conflict behaviors to reflect the family communication environment which they co-constructed and in which the children were socialized.

The purpose of our study was to assess the existence of the expected manifestations of parental socialization of conflict behaviors, specifically (a) whether parents and children self-report similar conflict behaviors and (b) whether parents and children report conflict behaviors consistent with the family communication environment they inhabit.

LITERATURE REVIEW: FAMILY COMMUNICATION PATTERNS

McLeod and Chaffee7 developed, and Ritchie and Fitzpatrick8 later refined, the concept of Family Communication Patterns also known as FCE.9 FCE has become among the most studied notions in family communication scholarship; the most recent meta-analysis documents its efficacy in explaining outcomes, particularly in children.10 FCE describes two dimensions of family communication: conformity orientation and conversation orientation. Conversation orientation refers to the dialectic between a family’s tendency to encourage discussion versus the tendency to encourage members to remain silent and to speak only when necessary. Conversation-orientation correlated positively with adolescent adjustment,11 the development of interpersonal skills,12 emotional connections and self-esteem,13 daughters’ relational closeness with fathers,14 as well as positive relational endeavors including friendship closeness15 and maintenance behaviors.16 In sum, conversation orientation may play a pivotal role in interpersonal interactions inside and outside the family.

The second dimension, conformity orientation, refers to the dialectic between a family’s tendency to stress harmony, children’s obedience to parents, and high levels of agreement

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