Key Themes in Family Communication – serie

This book offers a fresh and insightful introduction to children's communication development that emphasizes how families help children learn to communicate optimally. Writing for communication students, parents, teachers, and all who care for children, the authors argue that optimal development of children's communication competencies depends on family participation in everyday learning situations that challenge children's skills and build communication confidence. The book mirrors the organization and coverage of existing family communication textbooks, making it a valuable addition to coursework about families, communication, and development. Chapter topics include:   an overview of communication development: universal stages and cultural variations; communication development at home: nonverbal, verbal and mediated skills; relational and group dynamics in the home, including variations by ethnicity and family configuration; family roles and family rules for providing stability and structuring behavior; family resiliency in coping with challenges; strategies for fostering positive communication development in the home.  Families Communicating with Children emphasizes the positive effects of family influence, and draws attention to cross-cultural variations in parenting as well as universal steps in development. These features clarify the process of communication development and offer an optimistic view of the future for the many shapes families assume today.

This book offers a fresh and insightful introduction to children's communication development that emphasizes how families help children learn to communicate optimally. Writing for communication students, parents, teachers, and all who care for children, the authors argue that optimal development of children's communication competencies depends on family participation in everyday learning situations that challenge children's skills and build communication confidence. The book mirrors the organization and coverage of existing family communication textbooks, making it a valuable addition to coursework about families, communication, and development. Chapter topics include:   an overview of communication development: universal stages and cultural variations; communication development at home: nonverbal, verbal and mediated skills; relational and group dynamics in the home, including variations by ethnicity and family configuration; family roles and family rules for providing stability and structuring behavior; family resiliency in coping with challenges; strategies for fostering positive communication development in the home.  Families Communicating with Children emphasizes the positive effects of family influence, and draws attention to cross-cultural variations in parenting as well as universal steps in development. These features clarify the process of communication development and offer an optimistic view of the future for the many shapes families assume today.

Family Conflict takes a life course approach as it provides an accessible discussion of family conflict issues, processes, and outcomes.  Chapters draw on recent theory and research regarding sub-systems and stages in family life to give readers resource-rich overviews of conflict in contemporary families.  After the initial chapter presents the landscape of family conflict theory and research, chapters focus on conflict in couple relationships, parent-child relationships, sibling relationships, and in stepfamilies.  The book concludes with a discussion of how specific work, health, and disability challenges facing today’s families influence, and are influenced by, conflict interactions. Family Conflict will be essential reading for students of family communication, family researchers, professionals who work with families in various stages of life, and anyone who desires a deeper understanding of their own family conflict processes.

Family Conflict takes a life course approach as it provides an accessible discussion of family conflict issues, processes, and outcomes.  Chapters draw on recent theory and research regarding sub-systems and stages in family life to give readers resource-rich overviews of conflict in contemporary families.  After the initial chapter presents the landscape of family conflict theory and research, chapters focus on conflict in couple relationships, parent-child relationships, sibling relationships, and in stepfamilies.  The book concludes with a discussion of how specific work, health, and disability challenges facing today’s families influence, and are influenced by, conflict interactions. Family Conflict will be essential reading for students of family communication, family researchers, professionals who work with families in various stages of life, and anyone who desires a deeper understanding of their own family conflict processes.

Marital Communication provides insight into healthy relationships for those who want to better understand key communication processes between long-term, committed, romantic partners. Writing with students, teachers, researchers, practitioners, and couples in mind, this book uses marriage as a proving ground to understand the processes necessary to build and maintain positive romantic relationships. Marital Communication develops the idea that marriage is a distinctive communication context (long-term, romantic, and committed) that uniquely influences various relationship processes. It focuses on three essential elements needed for healthy marital functioning: positive everyday communication, intimacy and love, and productive conflict management. The book finishes by describing how these essential elements change across the life-span, by examining marriage’s dark side, and by focusing on the use of forgiveness to ensure a healthy longevity. Soundly documented with current research and written in a manner accessible to student and researcher alike, Marital Communication is an ideal supplement for current courses focusing on family communication, interpersonal and relational communication, and conflict. It is also an excellent, resource for the relationship professional.

Marital Communication provides insight into healthy relationships for those who want to better understand key communication processes between long-term, committed, romantic partners. Writing with students, teachers, researchers, practitioners, and couples in mind, this book uses marriage as a proving ground to understand the processes necessary to build and maintain positive romantic relationships. Marital Communication develops the idea that marriage is a distinctive communication context (long-term, romantic, and committed) that uniquely influences various relationship processes. It focuses on three essential elements needed for healthy marital functioning: positive everyday communication, intimacy and love, and productive conflict management. The book finishes by describing how these essential elements change across the life-span, by examining marriage’s dark side, and by focusing on the use of forgiveness to ensure a healthy longevity. Soundly documented with current research and written in a manner accessible to student and researcher alike, Marital Communication is an ideal supplement for current courses focusing on family communication, interpersonal and relational communication, and conflict. It is also an excellent, resource for the relationship professional.

This text provides for the first time in book form an exploration of the communicative aspects of the darker side of family life, ranging from, for example, severe acts of violence to more subtle forms of conflict. In addition to offering a working definition of the concept of the "dark side" in the family context, the authors propose the Darkness Model of Family Communication that integrates relevant literature in new and significant ways. Researchers, teachers and advanced students alike will benefit from the holistic and theoretical approach to the topic advanced through this volume. Readers are also encouraged to process the material by reviewing discussion questions and the case study of the Moore family at the end of each chapter. Chapter topics include: an overview of the "dark side" of family communicationindividual influences on the darkness of family communicationthe dark side of dyadic family lifefamilial interaction structure and the dark sidedark family communication in a context of darkness - socio-cultural influences on family lifeconcluding reflections on the study of dark family communicationThe Dark Side of Family Communication offers an integrative understanding of the dark side of family communication and a theoretical mechanism for understanding related scholarship. It will be essential reading for all students and scholars of family communication.

This text provides for the first time in book form an exploration of the communicative aspects of the darker side of family life, ranging from, for example, severe acts of violence to more subtle forms of conflict. In addition to offering a working definition of the concept of the "dark side" in the family context, the authors propose the Darkness Model of Family Communication that integrates relevant literature in new and significant ways. Researchers, teachers and advanced students alike will benefit from the holistic and theoretical approach to the topic advanced through this volume. Readers are also encouraged to process the material by reviewing discussion questions and the case study of the Moore family at the end of each chapter. Chapter topics include: an overview of the "dark side" of family communicationindividual influences on the darkness of family communicationthe dark side of dyadic family lifefamilial interaction structure and the dark sidedark family communication in a context of darkness - socio-cultural influences on family lifeconcluding reflections on the study of dark family communicationThe Dark Side of Family Communication offers an integrative understanding of the dark side of family communication and a theoretical mechanism for understanding related scholarship. It will be essential reading for all students and scholars of family communication.

During difficult times, families can be our greatest resource, or our heaviest burden. This book brings together research from a wide variety of disciplines to examine family interaction in the context of stressful situations. Instead of claiming that one type of interaction is better than other, seemingly unproductive forms of communication, the approach taken by the author recognizes that messages can have varying, sometimes unexpected consequences when a family is distressed. In addition to introducing students, scholars, and practitioners to the stress and coping literatures from both the individual and family perspectives, the book offers an in-depth examination of how relational communication scholars have contributed to this important and rich body of research. The book also explores family stress and coping within three specific contexts (military family separation, breast cancer, the transition to parenthood) and provides readers with the opportunity to apply their knowledge through case studies and examples from families who have lived through these difficult situations.