Relationships between family characteristics and communication apprehension

Abstract

This study examined relationships between college students’ communication apprehension (CA) and their perceptions of characteristics of their families of origin. The results indicated that a linear composite of parental acceptance‐rejection, family cohesion, expressiveness, independence, conflict, and communication patterns was significantly correlated with CA. When analyzed separately for men and women, men's CA was only significantly and positively related to conformity‐oriented family communication patterns, whereas women's CA was significantly and negatively related to parental acceptance, family cohesion, expressiveness, independence, & conversation orientation and positively related to conformity orientation.