Layering effects of religious and political nonaccommodation in predicting shared family identity

ABSTRACT

This study examined how religious and political nonaccommodation from a parent and grandparent are associated with shared family identity. Religious and political nonaccommodation were more consistently associated with shared family identity when participants were reporting on their parent’s communication rather than their grandparent’s communication. Additionally, receiving inappropriate religious self-disclosures and inappropriate political self-disclosures from a parent interacted to predict shared family identity. Receiving emphasis on divergent religious values and emphasis on divergent political values from a parent also interacted to predict shared family identity. Relational health may depend on adjustments to a constellation of group identities.

KEYWORDS:

• Communication accommodation theory
• nonaccommodation
• shared family identity
• religion
• politics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. When testing H1 and H2 for parents, the regression coefficients reported in the main text correspond with step three of the hierarchical multiple regressions given that step three was the highest step to explain a significant amount of unique variance in shared family identity for parents’ inappropriate self-disclosures and emphasis on divergent values. When testing H1 and H2 for grandparents, the regression coefficients reported in the main text correspond with step two of the hierarchical multiple regressions given that step two was the highest step to explain a significant amount of unique variance in shared family identity for grandparents’ inappropriate self-disclosures and emphasis on divergent values.

2. For RQ1, the regression coefficients reported in the main text for parents and grandparents correspond with step two of the hierarchical multiple regressions.

3. For RQ2 – RQ4, the regression coefficients reported in the main text for parents and grandparents correspond with step three of the hierarchical multiple regressions.

4. A paired-samples t-test revealed that participants perceived their grandparents as considering religion (M = 5.77, SD = 1.64) to be more important than politics (M = 5.05, SD = 1.64), t (623) = 8.51, p < .001, d = 0.34. A second paired-samples t-test revealed that participants did not differ in how important they themselves considered religion (M = 4.63, SD = 2.01) versus politics (M = 4.66, SD = 1.66), t (682) = −0.33, p = .74, d = −0.01.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Quinten S. Bernhold

Dr. Quinten S. Bernhold is an assistant professor in the School of Communication Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His research interests involve intergenerational family communication.