-
Editor Introduction Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Sylvia L. Mikucki-Enyart
Published in Journal of Family Communication (Vol. 24, No. 1-2, 2024)
-
Correction Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2024-03-13
Published in Journal of Family Communication (Vol. 24, No. 1-2, 2024)
-
Applying Relational Turbulence Theory to Parent-Child Political Conversations: The Role of (Dis)agreement About Christian Nationalism Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2024-03-11 Andrew M. Ledbetter, Olivia M. Lavin, Eryn N. Bostwick
Christian nationalism, or the belief that America should be governed as a Christian country, is an influential yet fractious political philosophy. This investigation applied relational turbulence t...
-
“We’ve Had to Relearn All of Our Family Dynamics”: Communicated Narrative Sense-Making of Bereavement Following Terminal Illness in U.S. Families Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2024-03-07 Cassidy R. Taladay-Carter, Jody Koenig Kellas
A family member’s death from terminal illness can impact the entire family in profound ways. Surviving family members must make sense of their bereavement, though few are offered spaces to tell the...
-
Secret-Keeping Tactics Central to Sexual Identity Concealment from Family Members Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2024-02-19 Katie Kassler
Keeping one’s sexual identity a secret long-term from family members may be particularly risky due to the involuntary, indefinite, and interdependent treatment of many family relationships in the U...
-
Re-Negotiating Self-Identity: Exploring the Role of Motherhood-Indicative Labels in Constructing Nigerian Mother’s Identity Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2024-02-18 Ifeoluwatobi A. Odunsi, Angela M. Hosek
Motherhood identities are affected by the life altering experience of childbirth. First-time mothers in Nigeria often experience an identity shift when close relatives consistently refer to them by...
-
Exploring Appropriateness as a Topic Avoidance Motivation: The Influence of Familial and Social Norms During the COVID-19 Pandemic Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2024-02-08 Helen M. Lillie, Manusheela Pokharel
A key motivation underlying topic avoidance is the belief that talk would be inappropriate. The current research teases apart the sources of this belief by testing family communication patterns (FC...
-
Religious Conversations and Surface Acting as Predictors of Relational Uncertainty in (Dis)confirming Sibling Relationships Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2024-02-05 Crosby G. Cobb, Paul Schrodt
This study examined the associations among frequency and comfort of siblings’ religious conversations and their relational uncertainty (RU), as well as the degree to which the associations depended...
-
“Make Your Family Proud”: Analyzing the Communication of Roles and Identity in Disney’s Encanto Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2023-10-09 Chelsea E. Moss, Taylor S. Vasquez, Carla L. Fisher, Larry F. Forthun
In this study, we analyzed Disney’s Encanto through the lens of identity theory using qualitative content analysis to examine how family roles and identity were communicatively constructed. Results...
-
The Spillover of Parenting Stress Onto Marital Qualities and Communication During Parenting Disagreements: A Relational Turbulence Theory Perspective Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2023-10-01 Kellie St.Cyr Brisini, Samuel Hardman Taylor
This study engages relational turbulence theory to examine relationship functioning and communication among parents of teenagers. The hypotheses assessed associations between relational uncertainty...
-
Walking the Tightrope: Communicative Tensions in Disenfranchised Grief Among Families Managing Substance Use Disorder Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2023-08-20 DeAnne Priddis, Emily M. Cramer
ABSTRACT This study investigates the communicative tensions inherent to the experience of disenfranchised grief among family members of individuals with substance use disorder (SUD). In the context of a family member with SUD, 98 adult-affected family members (AFMs) described their struggles with disenfranchised grief, a form of grief characterized by deprivation of support or recognition from others
-
“Oh, What a Way to Grieve the One You Love”: Black Families, Grief, and the Limits of Resilience Rhetoric for Positive Mental Health Outcomes Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2023-08-16 Goyland Williams, Tianna Cobb, Tomeka Robinson
This essay is a triple autoethnographic text written by three Black scholars with similar but uniquely positioned backgrounds with the purpose of exploring the ways that Black families negotiate an...
-
Introduction to the Special Issue on Communication in Black Families Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2023-08-07 Darvelle Hutchins, Leslie R. Nelson
This special issue is comprised of six peer-reviewed, empirical articles focused on communication and socialization in Black families. These articles collectively explore how Black families: (a) na...
-
“Did I Say Too Much? Did I Say enough?”: Balancing the Competing Struggles Parents Experience in Talking to Their Children About Sex-Related Topics Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2023-07-25 Amanda Holman, Madeline Holloway, Katie Meinecke, Sofia Deatherage, Reghan Kort, Ellen Erie, Nicole Rizk, Sarah Gilstrap, Sophia Piskel
ABSTRACT Parents are often the first-line resource for their children regarding relationships and sex-related topics. Although there has been increasing research on difficulties parents perceive surrounding these conversations, less research has been done to assess the complex personal experiences and perceptions parents navigate surrounding open, honest, and comprehensive sex-related talks with their
-
“Son, Black People are Like Superman. But Cops Can Be the Kryptonite:” Communication About Police Brutality in the Black Family Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2023-07-24 Deion Scott Hawkins
ABSTRACT Even with heightened scrutiny and augmented visibility of cases, the Black community continues to experience police brutality more than their racial counterparts. Previous research has highlighted the prominence of the Black family in the process of racial socialization and identity construction, and other research has reinforced the family as an influential factor in one’s perception of police
-
Black Women’s Sexual Communication: Retrospective Accounts of Messages from Male and Female Family Members Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2023-07-24 Helyne Frederick, Jeannette M. Wade, Sharon Parker, Sharla Kirkpatrick, Erynn Yarell
ABSTRACT The study used Black feminist theory and methods to examine messages about the composition of, and potential differences in the sexual health that Black women received from male and female loved ones. Black feminist theory grounded the study by ensuring Black women were involved in research team composition, design, recruitment, and data analysis. Our inductive thematic analysis of focus group
-
Raising Black Daughters: Using Intersectionality and Memorable Messages to Understand Parental Gendered Racial Socialization Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2023-07-25 Mackensie J. Minniear, Timothy Pierce, Jadah Morrison
Black women face differences in treatment based on their gender and racial identity. Therefore, scholarship has increased in understanding gendered racial socialization. This paper explains how par...
-
“I Wanted It to Be Flowers and Sunshine, but That Was Not It at All”: A Relational Dialectics Theory Analysis of Black Motherhood Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2023-07-25 Comfort Tosin Adebayo
Research on motherhood in family communication scholarship has traditionally focused on White women’s experiences in the U.S. Few communication studies have reported the experiences of Black mother...
-
Adaptive Parental Messaging, Racialized Gender Socialization, and Preparation for Black Womanhood Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2023-07-16 Lashaunda J. Lucas, Jeannette M. Wade
ABSTRACT Research shows that families engage in gender and race specific parenting, guided by societal expectations around gender roles and the persistent racialized hierarchy. What is missing is an analysis of how racialized gender socialization impacts the preparation of Black girls for womanhood. Here we utilized in depth interviewing to uncover messages Black millennial women (N = 9) received about
-
“We Can ‘Break Bread’ Virtually:” Routinized and Ritualized Aspects of Family Food Provisioning in the United States During Lockdown Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2023-07-03 Merin Oleschuk, Christopher R. Maniotes
Routines and rituals are ubiquitous across scholarship in family communication yet are overlapping and idiosyncratic concepts, making a clear distinction between them difficult. This paper builds c...
-
Racial-Genomic Interest Convergence and the Geneticization of Black Families Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2023-06-26 Charnell Peters
ABSTRACT This study expands our understanding of how commercialized genomics shape communication about Black individuals and Black families. Using critical race theory (CRT), I explicate how genetic ancestry tests (GATs) are rooted in whiteness and seek to overdetermine Blackness. Focus group interviews, individual interviews, and media analysis reveal the converging interests of the GAT industry and
-
Support Gaps in the Grandparent–Grandchild Relationship: Effects of Deficits and Surpluses on Grandchildren’s Loneliness Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2023-06-02 Jenny L. Crowley, Sarah Devereux, Quinten S. Bernhold
This study applied the support gaps concept, or discrepancies between the amount of support desired and received, to the grandparent – grandchild relationship by examining grandchildren’s perceptio...
-
Why Family Members St(r)ay: Marginalized Family Members’ Commitment to Family Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2023-05-22 Elizabeth Dorrance-Hall, Nicole Campbell, Molly Carlisle, Jacqueline Silverstone, Marissa Immel, Kelsey Earle
ABSTRACT Societal norms of commitment to family make gaining and maintaining family distance challenging. This study utilizes the investment model (Rusbult, 1980, 1983) to understand family commitment in the context of family member marginalization. A survey of 285 marginalized family members revealed family member marginalization is associated with lower family satisfaction and investment and higher
-
Setting the Agenda: Family Communication Scholars as Expert Witnesses Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2023-05-21 Andrea Lambert South
The legal community has long used family experts in preparation for court proceedings. Family law experts typically relied upon include psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and various fam...
-
Setting the Agenda: Focusing on Extended Family Relationships Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2023-05-18 Sylvia L. Mikucki-Enyart, Samantha Rose, Jordan B. Conrad
We call on family communication scholars to take a renewed interest in extended family relationships, including grandparents, in-laws, and aunts and uncles. Further, we encourage scholars to employ...
-
Exploring Family Communication Patterns and Interpersonal Technologies in United States-Based Grandparent-Grandchild Relationships Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2023-04-27 Jenna McNallie, Patricia E. Gettings
ABSTRACT Grandparents increasingly use both technologically-mediated and in-person communication to nurture relationships with their grandchildren. Framed using the communication interdependence perspective (CIP), this study examined associations among family communication patterns (FCPs), integration of face-to-face and technologically-mediated communication, and relationship satisfaction to explore
-
Family Communication Patterns and Expressing Racial Microaggressions Amongst White Adult Children Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2023-04-23 Timothy Curran, Analisa Arroyo, Jessica Fabbricatore
ABSTRACT Although much is known about the harmful consequences of racial microaggressions toward people of color, few studies have examined the factors associated with expressing racial microaggressions. This study investigated the relationship between White young adults’ perceptions of family communication environments and their self-reported microaggressive communication toward people of color. Participants
-
Setting the Agenda: Latina/x Tri-Generational Family Communication About Reproductive and Sexual Health Toward Wellbeing Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2023-03-26 Ashley Aragón, Angela Cooke-Jackson, Jennifer Oliva, Paulina Lainez, Marlene Huerta, Monica Roldán, Valerie Rubinsky
ABSTRACT The family is an important site of information, communication, and advocacy regarding sexual and reproductive health behaviors, particularly for individuals assigned female at birth (Byers, 2011 Byers, E. S. (2011). Beyond the birds and the bees and was it good for you?: Thirty years of research on sexual communication. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 52(1), 20–28. https://doi
-
Sanctification, Relationship Maintenance Behaviors, and Closeness Within Parent-Adult Child Relationships Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2023-03-16 Lauren E. Fellers, Christine E. Kunkle, Paul Schrodt, D. Jake Follmer
ABSTRACT According to sanctification theory, parents and adult children who see their parent-adult child relationships as possessing sacred qualities will be more apt to behave in ways that protect it. Positioning relationship maintenance behaviors as an explanatory mechanism through which sanctification is associated with relational quality in parent-adult child (N = 205 dyads) relationships, an Actor
-
Affected Family Members’ Communicative Management of Opioid Misuse Stigma: Applying and Rethinking the Stigma Management Communication Typology Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2023-03-09 Sydney O’Shay, Emily Pasman, Danielle L. Hicks, Suzanne Brown, Elizabeth Aguis, Stella M. Resko
ABSTRACT Opioid misuse is a prevalent health problem in the United States with consequences extending past the person who misuses opioids to affected family members (AFM) through courtesy stigma. The goals of this study were to understand the stigma management communication (SMC) strategies employed by AFMs when they experience courtesy stigma and changes in strategies used over time. The findings
-
Setting the Agenda: Poetic Inquiry as Critical Family Communication Methodology Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2023-02-19 Sandra L. Faulkner
ABSTRACT I use the erasure poems in the poetry chapbook, “Bringing Up Baby,” as Critical Interpersonal and Family Communication (CIFC) research to critique white middle-class notions of mothering and motherhood. Poetic inquiry is a form of Arts-Based Research (ABR) methodology that offers Critical Family Communication (CFC) researchers a way to highlight the aesthetics of personal experience, focus
-
Family Communication Patterns Predict Anticipatory Resilience and the Enactment of Resilience Processes Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2023-02-09 Josephine K. Boumis, Kai Kuang, Steven R. Wilson, Elizabeth A. Hintz, Patrice M. Buzzanell
ABSTRACT The communication theory of resilience (CTR; Buzzanell, 2010 Buzzanell, P. M. (2010). Resilience: Talking, resisting, and imagining new normalcies into being. The Journal of Communication, 60(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2009.01469.x[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2019 Buzzanell, P. M. (2019). Communication theory of resilience in everyday talk, interactions
-
Attributions and Framing in Working Mothers’ Reports About Division of Family Labor Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2023-01-11 Angela M. Hosek, Meredith Marko Harrigan
ABSTRACT This study investigated the process of attribution making regarding family labor in the context of dual earning families with children. Data consisted of 257 attribution statements from 34 working self-identified mothers of children under 18 that were made about experiences with family labor. Findings indicated that participants attribute their experiences to a variety of external, relational
-
Transferable Resilience Practices: Communication and Resilience of U.S. Military Spouses during the Initial Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2022-11-28 Alice Fanari, R. Amanda Cooper, Leah Dajches, Gary Beck, Margaret J. Pitts
ABSTRACT This study uses the communication theory of resilience as a sensitizing framework to explore how U.S. military spouses transferred resilience practices acquired during military deployment to early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from 27 in-depth interviews with U.S. military spouses showed that the military experience shaped participants’ appraisal of the pandemic and helped them to
-
Examining Changes in Affection and “Feeling Touched Out” after the Birth of a Child Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2022-11-04 Lisa J. van Raalte, Tricia J. Burke, Jocelyn M. DeGroot, Abigail J. Mellow
ABSTRACT This research explored changes in affection, with a particular focus on feeling touched out, for parents after the birth of their child. An online questionnaire asked parents (N = 39 U.S. adults) open-ended questions to investigate changes in affection after the birth of their child. Thematic analysis indicated that approximately a little over half of the sample reported reduced affection
-
Intergenerational Communication: The Meaning of Communication Channels and Their Affordances Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2022-09-22 Noa Ana Hatzir, Elad Segev
ABSTRACT Based on the Relational Dialectics Theory 2.0 and the concept of affordances, this study examined the competing discourses that animate the meaning of intergenerational communication among Israeli women. Three generations of women from nine families were interviewed about their perceptions and use of multiple channels–face-to-face communication, mobile phone calls, and WhatsApp chats–to communicate
-
Adult Children’s Recollections of Their White Parents’ Moral Memorable Messages about Racial Difference Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2022-09-12 Christine E. Kunkle, R. E. Purtell, Erin Shelton
ABSTRACT A new lens for exploring family socialization about racism and racial differences, the crux of the study is college students“ (N = 181) recalled moral memorable messages (MMM) from their White parents about racial outgroups. Among those who recalled a message, the most common theme was ‘Equal Treatment,’ and included subthemes consistent with both colorblind and multicultural ideologies. ‘Racism
-
Communicating Across Eternal Divides: Conceptualizing Communicated Acceptance During Parent-Child Religious Difference Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2022-08-29 Toni Morgan, Jody Koenig Kellas
ABSTRACT Significant religious difference in the family has become increasingly prevalent in recent years. While religious difference may be challenging for families to negotiate, the manner in which family members communicate about it seems to be helpful in promoting positive interactions between parents and children. The purpose of this study was to conceptualize a parental communicated (non)acceptance
-
Associations between Parents’ Negative Talk about Aging and Young Adults’ Negative Affect and Efficacy Related to Aging Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2022-08-05 Jessica Gasiorek, Craig Fowler
ABSTRACT Guided by the communicative ecology model of successful aging, this study examined the relationship between the frequency of parents’ negative talk about aging (i.e., complaints about age and use of age-based excuses) and young adult children’s negative affect and efficacy about aging. It also investigated the degree to which a family’s general tendency to engage in open communication affected
-
Adoptive Parents Navigating Adoption Microaggressions through Discourse Dependency and Preparation for Bias Lenses Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2022-07-25 S. Lee, J. Liu, A.M. Kimura, X. Zhang, J. Kupa, A. Jurca, K. Boland, E.E. Pinderhughes
ABSTRACT Adoptive families must navigate public discourse about adoption. This study examined how transracial adoptive (TRA) and same-race adoptive (SRA) families communicated to their children through internal boundary management, teaching external boundary management strategies, and preparation for bias as ways to address adoption microaggressions (AMAs). 104 U.S. adoptive parents (TRA = 77; SRA = 27)
-
Adoption, Communication, and Family Networks: Current Research and Future Directions Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2022-07-18 Colleen Warner Colaner
ABSTRACT This special issue of the Journal of Family Communication highlights the role of communication processes in adoption placements. Six original, peer-reviewed, empirical articles comprise this special issue. Together, these articles represent cutting-edge research on the formative dialogue that sustains adoption kinship networks. Each article is theoretically driven and analytically rich, offering
-
Lesbian, Gay, and Heterosexual Parents’ Perspectives on Their Adopted Children’s Puberty and Approaches to Puberty-Related Communication Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2022-07-06 Abbie E. Goldberg, Haylie Virginia
ABSTRACT This study explored how adoptive parents perceive their children’s adoptive status as impacting their experience of puberty, how they manage uncertainty associated with their children’s transition to puberty, and how they communicate with their children about puberty, using data from 60 adoptive parents, including lesbian mothers, gay fathers, and heterosexual mothers and fathers. Findings
-
“I Want the Piece of Paper that Is My History, and Why the Hell Can’t I Have It?”: Original Birth Certificates and Adoptive Identity Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2022-07-04 Melissa Rizzo Weller
ABSTRACT This study focused on how adopted adults who have reunited with at least one birth family member experienced identity shifts related to their original birth certificates (OBCs). Framed by the Communication Theory of Identity (CTI), 50 adopted adults discussed their experiences related to their OBCs and how their identities are connected to this symbol through three of the layers of CTI, the
-
The Mediating Role of Adoption Communication Openness between Family Functioning and the Adjustment of Adopted Adolescents: A Multi-Informant Approach Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2022-07-04 Sonia Ranieri, Laura Ferrari, Rosa Rosnati, Francesca Vittoria Danioni, Elena Canzi, Laurie Miller
ABSTRACT Family systems theories consider cohesion, flexibility, and communication as distinct but related key dimensions of family functioning. These dimensions are underexplored within adoptive families. We investigated the extent to which family cohesion, flexibility, and adoption communication openness relate to the adjustment of adoptees in adolescence. A self-report questionnaire was completed
-
Adopted Individuals’ Information Management Strategies for Managing Uncertainty about Genetic Family Health History Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2022-06-29 Deborah B. Yoon, Jennifer A. Theiss
ABSTRACT Knowledge of genetic family health history (GFHH) plays an important role in encouraging individuals to take preventative health measures, but adopted individuals often face barriers to accessing this information. This study examines how uncertainty about GFHH is associated with various information management strategies for adopted individuals. We surveyed 154 adopted individuals to assess
-
Returning to Normal in an Abnormal Environment: Mothers’ COVID-19 Uncertainties and Uncertainty Management Strategies Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2022-06-05 Kimberly K. Walker, Gregory D. Zimet
ABSTRACT This study used uncertainty management theory to assess mothers’ COVID-19-related uncertainty sources and management strategies during the Delta variant outbreak as the fall 2021 school year approached. Twenty-five mothers living in Indiana were interviewed between July-August 2021. Data indicated four uncertainty sources: COVID-19 illness risk, children’s psychological health, reintegration
-
Relationship Satisfaction as a Function of Perceived Similarity in Religious and Political Beliefs and Identity Accommodation Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2022-04-26 Quinten S. Bernhold, Dennis McCarty, Howard Giles
ABSTRACT Guided by communication accommodation theory (CAT), this study examined whether young adults’ perceptions of similarity in their religious and political beliefs with a parent and grandparent were associated with young adults’ relationship satisfaction, as well as how identity accommodation from the older family member moderated these associations. Perceived similarity was not associated with
-
“It Just Shifted Everything in Our Family Dynamic:” Recalibration within the Family System in Response to Alzheimer’s Disease Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2022-04-05 Aimee E. Miller-Ott, R. Amanda Cooper, Evan Lobdell
ABSTRACT Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a debilitating progressive illness that wreaks havoc on the person with Alzheimer’s (PWA) and their family. AD impairs the PWA’s cognitive, communicative, and bodily functioning, and family members are challenged to maintain ongoing but significantly altered relationships with the PWA. We aimed to understand how the actions of family members of a PWA served to recalibrate
-
How Working Mothers Juggle Jobs and Family during COVID-19: Communicating Pathways to Resilience Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2022-03-30 Lynn H. Turner, Daradirek Ekachai, Karen Slattery
ABSTRACT This qualitative study explored how working mothers communicatively constructed resilience during COVID-19. We focused on working mothers because the pandemic upended arrangements they had made previously to juggle work and family lives. Drawing on the Communication Theory of Resilience (CTR), the study analyzed data collected from 24 U.S. working mothers who were interviewed via Zoom between
-
Setting the Agenda: Beyond Discourse Dependence and a Dependence on Discourse Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2022-03-10 Charee M. Thompson, Elizabeth A. Hintz, Christopher M. Duerringer
ABSTRACT The exploration of discourse has been enormously generative to critical family communication scholarship (CFC), as scholars have both studied discourse in and of families as well as theorized about what discourse is and does. The heuristic value of discourse to CFC moves us to offer an agenda for future CFC research that asks family communication scholars to theoretically expand beyond discourse
-
Adult Stepchildren’s Uncertainty Management in Later Life Stepfamilies: Illuminating the Role of Context, Intentionality, Collaboration, and Information Implications Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2022-02-22 Sylvia L. Mikucki-Enyart, Ashley M. Peterson
ABSTRACT Increasing divorce and remarriage rates among middle and older aged adults has resulted in an uptick of later life stepfamilies (LLSF). Despite these growing numbers, research often focuses on stepfamily development in adolescence, leaving lingering questions about how adult stepchildren navigate this transition, including grappling with uncertainties. Guided by uncertainty management theory
-
Making Meaning of Women Who Have Late-Term Abortions from the Perspective of Mothers Who Terminated Wanted Pregnancies Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2022-01-07 Kristina M. Scharp, Brooke H. Wolfe, Cimmiaron F. Alvarez
ABSTRACT Women who have late-term abortions not only have to cope with losing a child but also the stigma associated with termination. Understanding the ways stigmatizing ideologies are resisted by alternatives has the potential to disrupt meanings that disenfranchise populations. Interested in ideological resistance, we framed this study in relational dialectics theory, which highlights how marginalized
-
Paths to Positivity: Relational Trajectories and Interaction in Positive Stepparent-Stepchild Dyads Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2021-12-20 Vincent R. Waldron, Dawn O. Braithwaite, Bailey M. Oliver-Blackburn, Brianna L. Avalos
ABSTRACT Stepfamilies are inherently complex family systems, marked by change, flexible boundaries, and early conflict. But the developmental pathways by which long-term stepparent relationships become positive require more study. We interviewed 38 stepchildren who had reached adulthood, to understand how their relationships with a stepparent became positive. Four relational trajectories defined these
-
Setting the Agenda: Finding Fathers in Family Communication Scholarship Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2021-12-02 Vincent R. Waldron, Thomas J. Socha
ABSTRACT Despite its consequential role, fatherhood is relatively underrepresented in recent family communication scholarship. We use Brofenbrenner’ssocio/bio/ecological model to synthesize existing studies and identify research opportunities. Much existing work has occurred at the level of microsystem, where research makes clear that father-offspring communication has short-term term effects on the
-
Examining the Moderating Influence of Relationship Satisfaction on Affection and Trust, Closeness, Stress, and Depression Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2021-11-11 Lisa J. van Raalte, Kory Floyd
ABSTRACT This study sought to explore whether relationship satisfaction moderated the relationship between affection and individual health (i.e., depression and stress) and affection and relational well-being (i.e., trust and closeness). The sample (N = 631) was comprised of predominantly female non-married Southwestern college students. Relationship satisfaction did not interact with the relationship
-
Attachment Theory as a Lens to Explain Accommodation, Nonaccommodation, and Loneliness in Relationships between Middle-Aged Parents and Young Adult Children Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2021-11-01 Quinten S. Bernhold, Howard Giles
ABSTRACT The role of individual differences in shaping family members’ experiences has only been sporadically examined in research on communication accommodation theory. This dyadic study (N = 126 middle-aged parents and 126 young adult children) investigated the relationship between parents’ and children’s attachment anxiety and avoidance and self-reported loneliness, and the roles of accommodation
-
Relational Satisfaction as a Mediator of Parent-Young Adult Conflict and Young Adults’ Emotional Labor Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2021-10-29 Jenna R. LaFreniere, Chaitra Kulkarni
ABSTRACT This study investigated the potential for young adults’ relational (dis)satisfaction with parents to function as a mediator in the association between their demand/withdraw patterns and emotional labor with parents. Based on a survey of 259 young adults, results indicated that young adults’ relational (dis)satisfaction functions as an explanatory mechanism, where demand/withdraw conflict with
-
Food for Thought: Parent-Child Face-to-Face Communication and Mobile Phone Use in Eateries Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2021-07-29 Nelly Elias, Dafna Lemish, Galit Rovner-Lev
ABSTRACT It has become increasingly common for parents and children to engage in individual digital activities which disconnect them from each other while remaining in each other’s presence. Accordingly, this paper examines how parent-child face-to-face communication is associated with mobile phone use during a family meal in eateries. The study included unobtrusive observations of 58 families with
-
Examining Grandparents’ Perceptions of Expectations and Family Communication Patterns in the Development of Grandparent–Grandchild Relationships Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2021-09-17 Patricia E. Gettings, Jenna McNallie
ABSTRACT Framed using Family Communication Patterns Theory, this study examined today’s grandparent experience by drawing connections among grandparental role expectations, family communication patterns, and relationship satisfaction with one’s grandchild and adult child. Grandparent role expectations operate as relational schemas that include general expectations about what individuals should do as
-
Are Parents Doing It Right? Parent and Child Perspectives on Parental Mediation in Singapore Journal of Family Communication Pub Date : 2021-09-23 May O. Lwin, Chitra Panchapakesan, Jaishree Teresa, Ysa Marie Cayabyab, Wonsun Shin
ABSTRACT This study examines how parents and their children differ in their perceptions of parental mediation strategies implemented to supervise and monitor children’s digital media use. Focusing on the Asian context, we explore reasons for parents to set rules as well as parental roles and strictness in relation to children’s digital media use. In-depth qualitative interviews with parents and their