The Intergenerational Transmission of Social Skills and Psychosocial Problems among Parents and their Young Adult Children

Complementary Channel Use and the Role of Social Competence

“…It is possible that people who are less comfortable with technology would tend to rely more heavily on one or two technologies, thus limiting the extent to which they use channels in complementary ways. Our sample also had somewhat higher levels of social competence ( M = 3.82 on a 5‐point scale with a midpoint of 3); however, it is not uncommon for measures of social competence to be slightly above the midpoint among adolescents (see Valkenburg & Peter, ) and college students (Burke, Woszidlo, & Segrin, ). Still, future researchers should make an effort to consider how the associations in the current study occur among people with more variability and/or clinical deficits in social skill.…”

Associations Between Parents’ and Young Adults’ Face-to-Face and Technologically Mediated Communication Competence: The Role of Family Communication Patterns

“…Among young adults, Schrodt et al (2009) found that sons’ perceptions of fathers’ communication competence were positively associated with sons’ self-reported competence. Along the same line, Burke et al (2013) reported that fathers’ self-reported social skills were positively associated with adult children’s self-reported social skills, although such an association was not significant between mothers’ and children’s social skills.…”

“…The positive direct path from parent self-reported FtF appropriateness to child self-reported FtF appropriateness implies that parents may serve as an important role model for how to communicate in socially appropriate ways. Put differently, the ability to consider the rules and norms in a certain social situation and attend to others’ goals can be transmitted from parents to children, providing further evidence for the intergenerational transmission of social skills (Burke et al, 2013; Burleson & Kunkel, 2002). Contrary to our expectations, there was not a significant association between parent self-reported FtF communication effectiveness and child self-reported FtF communication effectiveness.…”

“…Children tend to develop social skills that are similar to those of their parents (e.g., Burke et al, 2013). Social learning theory posits that individuals’ behaviors can be learned through direct experiences and/or observation (Bandura, 1977).…”

“…Parents play a vital role in children’s development of social and communication competence (Hart, Newell, & Olsen, 2003). There is evidence for intergenerational transmission of communication competence, such that parents who are (or are perceived by children as) more communicatively competent tend to have children with higher levels of communication competence (e.g., Burke, Woszidlo, & Segrin, 2013; Schrodt et al, 2009). Past research also suggests that parents’ communication competence is indirectly linked to children’s communication competence through family communication schemata (Schrodt et al, 2009).…”