A Cross-Cultural Examination of the Mediating Role of Family Support and Parental Advice Quality on the Relationship Between Family Communication Patterns and First-Year College Student Adjustment in the United States and Belgium

Abstract

This study examines how college students' family communication environments influence their adjustment during the first year of college in two distinct cultures: Belgium (n = 513) and the United States (n = 431). Three structural equation models were tested to determine the mediating effects of (a) perceived family support, (b) quality of academic advice from parents, and (c) quality of social advice from parents on associations between family communication patterns (FCPs) and student adjustment. Although most relationships are more complicated than predicted based on FCP theory and research, several patterns occur across models and populations. Conversation orientation tends to foster positive adjustment for both cultures

Family Communication Patterns and the Mediating Effects of Support and Resilience on Students' Concerns About College

“…As expected, conversation orientation is positively related to perceptions of family support. This finding supports findings by Dorrance Hall et al () for college student samples in both the United States and Belgium. Conversation orientation is an external phenomenon in that high conversation orientation is achieved by being open to talking about family members' outside lives and influences (Koerner & Fitzpatrick, ).…”

“…Parents should be encouraged to communicate support of their children when the process of applying to colleges begins. On the basis of the findings of this study and others before it, we know that perceptions of high family support are important for emerging adults (Dorrance Hall et al, ). Active communication of support by parents could be encouraged by high school counselors but also at college orientation programs.…”

“…We recognize that changing one's family communication environment is difficult and that there are multiple productive ways of achieving co-orientation in the family (see Koerner & Fitzpatrick, 2002), but based on recent findings, high conversation-low conformity orientation environments tend to be associated with positive outcomes for emerging adults making the transition to college. Although this is true with regard to having lower levels of concern about transitioning to college, the consensual family type (high conversation, high conformity) displayed the highest levels of perceived family support, which has been associated with better college adjustment in past research (Dorrance Hall et al, 2017). Thus, future FCP research needs to continue to explore interactions between the orientations to better understand how different outcomes are associated with the family types.…”

“…High conversation orientation is associated with students' ability to seek supportive communication (High & Scharp, 2015) and better student adjustment (Dorrance Hall et al, 2017). Thus, when parents create open environments in which their emerging adult children can ask for help and talk about difficult topics, their children likely perceive more family support.…”

“…We propose a theoretical model that tests perceived family support and resilience as parallel mediators of FCP and adjustment associated with the transition to college. Our findings are intended to extend existing research that suggests families can influence their children's ability to succeed in college (Dorrance Hall et al, 2017). Specifically, our goals for the present study are to explore the ways FCP influence concerns before the college transition and to assess the relationship between FCP and resilience, including how resilience and support may explain the association between FCP and student adjustment.…”