Cognitive Flexibility as a Mediator of Family Communication Environments and Young Adults' Well-Being

Abstract

In this study, cognitive flexibility was tested as a mediator of family communication environments (i.e., family expressiveness, structural traditionalism, and avoidance of conflict) and young adults' well-being (i.e., self-esteem, mental health, and physical health). Participants included 395 young adults from first-marriage and postdivorce families. Using structural equation modeling, the results revealed that family expressiveness positively predicted young adults' cognitive flexibility, whereas avoidance of conflict emerged as a negative predictor. Cognitive flexibility, in turn, fully mediated the influence of both expressiveness and avoidance of conflict on well-being. Although structural traditionalism did not predict cognitive flexibility, it did have a direct, inverse effect on young adults' well-being. Among the more important implications of this study is the finding that structural traditionalism and avoidance of conflict, 2 aspects of a conformity orientation in families, generate different effects (i.e., direct vs. indirect) on young adult's well-being.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

An earlier version of this article was presented as the top paper in the Interpersonal and Small Group Communication Interest Group at the 2007 Central States Communication Association meeting in Minneapolis, MN, March 28–April 1.

The authors thank Teri Garstka for her assistance with this project.

Notes

¹The license to use the GHQ-12 General Health Questionnaire was obtained by the first author.

²The license to use the SF-12v2 Health Survey was obtained by the first author.