Perceptions of Joint Family Storytelling as Mediators of Family Communication Patterns and Family Strengths

Abstract

Using family communication patterns theory, this study tested the degree to which perceptions of joint family storytelling mediate the relationship between family communication patterns (i.e., conversation and conformity orientations) and family strengths. Participants included 267 young adults from first-marriage families. Results indicated that conversation orientation is positively associated with the interactional sense-making (ISM) behaviors that characterize jointly told family stories (i.e., engagement, polite turn-taking, perspective-taking and coherence) and family strengths, while conformity orientation is negatively associated with ISM behaviors and family strengths. Indirect effects emerged for conversation and conformity orientations on family strengths through perceptions of ISM behaviors. Specifically, perceptions of storytelling engagement and polite turn-taking mediated the positive association between conversation orientation and family strength, while engagement, perspective-taking, and polite turn-taking mediated the inverse association between conformity orientation and family strength.

Keywords::

• Conformity Orientation
• Conversation Orientation
• Family Storytelling
• Family Strength
• Narrative

Notes

Participants whose parents were divorced (n = 47) or deceased (n = 12) were excluded from the original data set given insufficient sample sizes to conduct appropriate statistical comparisons.

Our attempt to create a survey measure of joint family storytelling limited the extent to which we could adequately account for all four ISM behaviors identified in Koenig Kellas’s research. For example, a self-report survey designed to assess global perceptions of family-level storytelling cannot adequately assess how dynamic the turn-taking was among family members, particularly when turn-taking is likely to vary tremendously from story to story.

In her program of research on joint family storytelling, Koenig Kellas (2005, 2010; Trees & Koenig Kellas, 2009) identified two dimensions of turn-taking that researchers can code for when conducting observational research: dynamism and politeness. Given the operational challenges associated with assessing the dynamism of turn-taking with a self-report survey, we chose to assess only the perceived politeness of turn-taking in the telling of family stories. Our assessment of turn-taking politeness deviates from Koenig Kellas’s original ISM rating scheme, however. In Koenig Kellas’s observational research, for example, family turn-taking that was polite tended to be more formal and stunted, whereas in the present survey, turn-taking politeness was more indicative of courteous, thoughtful, and inclusive forms of turn-taking.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Patty Ann Thompson

Patty Ann Thompson (M.S., Texas Christian University, 2013) is a graduate from the Department of Communication Studies at Texas Christian University.

Paul Schrodt

Paul Schrodt (Ph.D., University of Nebraska–Lincoln, 2003) is the Philip J. and Cheryl C. Burguières Professor and Graduate Director in the same department. This study was conducted as part of the first author’s thesis, completed under the direction of the second author.