Negative Communication Behaviors During Family Problem Solving: Cohesion as a Moderator in a Growth Curve Analysis

Abstract

Using archived data a multilevel model examined change in negative communication behaviors of three family members (mother, father and preadolescent) across four sequential family problem solving sessions in the home. The sample included 756 problem-solving sessions, nested within 189 individuals, within 63 families. Basic tenets of family therapy were used to examine the effect of the occasions of measurement, revealing that communication was less negative when the adolescent selected the problem. The individual level analysis was guided by a conflict structure perspective that found adolescents (in general) showed more negative communication behaviors than parents. At the family level, scores on the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale (FACES III) were significantly related to changes in negative communication behaviors. A significant interaction between FACES III scores and negative communication behaviors showed negativity increased across sessions in families that scored lower on the FACES III, but decreased in families that scored higher.

Notes

¹High cohesion was defined as 1 or more standard deviations above the mean (n = 7 families: children, mothers, and fathers). Low cohesion was defined as 1 or more standard deviations below the mean (n = 13 families: children, mothers, and fathers). Plots are based on predicted values for each person taking all predictors into account.