Browsing by Subject "Family communication"

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An application of the theory of resilience and relational load : family communal orientation, social support, stress, and resilience during gender transition
(2020-06-22) Table, Billy; Donovan-Kicken, Erin E.; Dailey, Rene; Vangelisti, Anita; Sandoval, Jennifer
This dissertation aimed to explore vital questions in health communication scholarship focused on the role of family communication in transgender individuals’ coping with stress. As posed by the Minority Stress Theory (MST; Meyer, 1995; 2013), transgender individuals endure chronically high levels of stress as a consequence of discrimination. Studies demonstrate that transgender people have fewer sources of familial and network support, and overall have fewer places to turn during times of duress and health crises (Gamarel et al., 2014; Meyer, 2003). The present study was framed with the Theory of Resilience and Relational Load (TRRL; Afifi et al., 2016; 2017; 2018). The central idea of the TRRL is that relationships (partners, families, and on) that frequently enact positive relational maintenance behaviors demonstrate more resilience when faced with stressors. Because families have a distinctive capacity to influence individuals’ coping strategies (Segrin & Flora, 2011), there is a need to examine the ways that transitioning individuals perceive the support and conflict communication with family members, and what influence this communication can have on their mental health. In order to test the propositions of the TRRL in this context, a web-based questionnaire was administered, and 257 individuals who identify as transgender responded. Participants were asked to think about their relationship with one member of their family of origin with whom there is ongoing communication. Participants responded to measures of communal orientation, enacted support, conflict, relational load, stress, and resilience. To analyze these data, a series of multiple regressions were performed and three path models were fitted. Findings from this study illustrated mixed results regarding the impact of relational maintenance on stress and resilience outcomes. While family members that are more communally oriented and use more constructive conflict strategies demonstrate a positive effect on lower stress and higher resilience; more communally oriented family members that employ more enacted support foster more stress for transgender individuals. Findings suggest that those with higher stress about transitioning may be seeking more support, and or support providers may be offering ineffective support to their loved ones in ways that contribute to their feelings of stress.
Parental confirmation and emerging adult children’s body image : self-concept and social competence as mediators
(2016-08) Taniguchi, Emiko; Dailey, René M.; Vangelisti , Anita L; Donovan, Erin; Neff, Lisa A; Whittaker, Tiffany
Although the role of family factors in the development of body image is well documented, the mechanism of how family interactions are related to body image remains inadequately understood. Moreover, extant body image literature examining the role of family factors has largely focused on mother-daughter relationships, limiting our understanding on fathers’ roles and sons’ experiences. The purpose of this project was to address limitations in extant literature from a communicative perspective. Based on confirmation theory (Dailey, 2010), this project examined (a) how each component of parental confirmation (acceptance and challenge) was individually and interactively related to emerging adults’ body image, (b) how these associations were mediated by social competence and self-concept, and (c) how hypothesized links differed by parental and child sex. Male and female college students (N = 447; 319 females) responded to a series of online surveys. Collectively, the results provided general support for the proposed mediation model. There were minimal child sex differences, whereas there were some differences in hypothesized associations depending on the parental sex. For mothers’ communication behaviors, the positive association between mother acceptance and body image was fully mediated by social competence and self-concept together, and mother challenge enhanced the positive effect of mother acceptance on body image through self-concept (but not through social competence). In terms of fathers’ communication behaviors, the positive association between father acceptance and body image was partially mediated by self-concept. Further, father acceptance and father challenge interacted to predict body image directly, without being mediated by the proposed mediators, such that father challenge enhanced the positive effect of father acceptance on body image. Altogether, the findings of this study suggest that acceptance and challenge are associated with emerging adults’ body image through a somewhat different mechanism depending on parent sex (but not child sex). This research underscores the utility of employing a confirmation perspective in understanding the mechanisms of how family interactions are related to body image.
Parents, privacy, parentification : exploring parental disclosures of family secrets, parentification, privacy management, and relationship satisfaction
(2023-05-04) Hernandez, Karissa Marie; Vangelisti, Anita L.
When a parent discloses a family secret to their adult-child, they may impact different elements of the parent-child relationship. To explore the perspective of adult children when a parent discloses a family secret, this study utilizes a communication privacy management framework (CPM; Petronio, 2002), surveying adult-children between the ages of 18 and 25 (N = 383), to investigate the positive association between privacy management and relationship satisfaction (H1), the negative association between relationship satisfaction and parentification (H2), and the positive association between parentification and privacy management (H3). Additionally, the current study explored whether parentification moderates the relationship between privacy management and relationship satisfaction (H4), and whether relationship satisfaction moderates the association between parentification and privacy management (H5). Results demonstrate significant associations between both privacy management and relationship satisfaction, and relationship satisfaction and parentification. There was no association found between parentification and privacy management. Further, parentification was not found to moderate the relationship between privacy management and satisfaction, and satisfaction was not found to moderate the relationship between parentification and privacy management. These findings inform family communication scholarship regarding parent-child relational behaviors, dyadic functioning, and family dynamics.
“She did not come out, but we’ve come to terms” -- family reconciliation of challenged expectations when a young adult child is gender and sexual minority/tongzhi : multiple perspectives
(2019-08) Jhang, JhuCin; Maxwell, Madeline M.; Donovan, Erin E; Vangelisti, Anita L; Gulbas, Lauren E
This dissertation investigated adult child-parent relationship where the child is a gender/sexual minority, or tongzhi (同志). Building on Jhang's (2018) model of scaffolding in family, this dissertation theorized the process of chugui (出櫃, exit-closet) for Taiwanese tongzhi and their family. Chugui is a direct translation of coming out of the closet, but it entails a rather different process than disclosure. Thus, this dissertation challenged the conventional coming out as disclosure conceptualization by delineating the coming to terms process. As a Westernized-Confucius society, Taiwan has recently experienced drastic legal changes regarding gender/sexual minority, including legalizing same-sex marriage in 2019, making it a suitable context to examine chugui/coming out in the family. Using grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006), interview and field observation data are analyzed to find categories to substantiate the coming to terms model. 40 tongzhi young adult (age 20-38) and 17 parents (age 45-69) were included. The findings built the model of coming to terms/chugui in the family as scaffolding. It shows the onset of chugui/coming out is the awareness of difference rather than disclosure. The process of coming to terms is characterized by the psychological constant comparison of relating, a way for people to make sense of relationships by comparing various micro and macro discourses. The process is also influenced by the intersectional identity of the offspring (biological sex, gender performance, and direction of sexual attraction) and the parent (father/mother, and social class). People then make individual behavioral scaffolding efforts to move forward. Finally, the parents may compartmentalize their acceptance behaviorally, emotionally, attitudinally, and cognitively, while the offspring might accept or reject the discounted acceptance, making the process indefinite. Theoretical implications include establishing the processual and relational nature of coming to terms, legitimizing parental agency, and underscoring the utility of functional ambivalence, the notion of relational selfhood, and intersectional identity. Practical implications include making the idea of polysemy and the constant comparison process explicit and helping people building schemas while avoiding cruel optimism. The transferability of the model is discussed, and this dissertation invites researchers to look beyond “disclosure” in studying LGBTQ+ family relationship.