The Effect of Family Communication Environments on Children's Social Behavior During Middle Childhood

Abstract

The family communication environments of school-age children in Grades 1, 4, 6, and 7 were measured using “talking picture books” containing dialogues representing various types of family communication. Children listened to the dialogues and examined cartoon pictures depicting different families. Using this information, children identified their families as either (a) pluralistic (high conversation and low conformity), (b) consensual (high conversation and high conformity), (c) protective (low conversation and high conformity), or (d) laissez-faire (low conversation and low conformity). Children completed the revised Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and teachers rated each child's social self-restraint and social withdrawal. Results revealed an interaction among family type, sex, and grade level for both social withdrawal and social self-restraint, suggesting that family communication environments may be differentially beneficial for boys and girls at particular points of development.

Family communication patterns, sex of subject, and communication competence

“…Early studies using the four family types focused on television-viewing behaviors (Chaffee et al, 1971;Chaffee & Tims, 1976;Dimmick, 1976) and consumer learning (Moore & Moschis, 1981) as it pertained to adolescent socialization. More recently, studies using the four-fold typology have explored how certain social pathologies might lead to peer rejection and social withdrawal (Fitzpatrick, Marshall, Leutwiler, & Krcmar, 1996) during early adolescence, and how families with adolescents cope with conflict (Koerner & Fitzpatrick, 1997, 2002b. These findings demonstrate the usefulness of both the two-dimensional scale and the four-fold typology in the study of family communication and its influence on adolescent socialization.…”

Taking risks when communicating on the Internet: the role of offline social-psychological factors in young people's vulnerability to online risks

“…Note that the correlation between conformity-and conversation-orientation measures is only -.05 (p=0.06), confirming that these are independent rather than opposed measures (c.f. Fitzpatrick, Marshall, Leutwiler, & Krcmar, 1996); it is thus possible for children to see their parents both as conversation-and conformity-oriented, though others may see their parents are more conversation-than conformity-oriented, or vice versa. …”

Mothers’ Perceptions of Family Communication Patterns when Having an ADHD Child

“…Fitzpatrick, Leutwiler, Krcmar, and Marshall (1996) suggest that "family communication environments may be differentially beneficial for boys and girls at particular points of development" (Fitzpatrick et al, 1996, p. 379). Tripp, Schaughency, Langlands, and Mouat (2007) suggest the manner in which families communicate and their overall dynamic is affected by whether or not a particular family has an ADHD child living in the same household.…”