Family has a large impact to how someone interacts with others and how someone may view or think of themselves. What we hear and see play a large role in the development of communication and behavior. Most communication skills come from those used within the family and it is applied to how we communicate with others. This paper intends to evaluate a popular press article that touches on the influence of family communication and its impact on how we interact with others. Also, will provide research that will either support or denounce the articles statements about family and communication.
Summary of popular press
In this popular press article from BBC, Jarrett touches on the relationship of a child and the way their parents communicated with them and with one another, and its long term affects on how one will relate, communicate with others. Using the specific example of workplace colleagues, also indicates that the early life experience of this could have long term affects (Jarrett). A child is especially very absorbent of its nuclear/blood family and observes how they communicate with one another from simple conversation, to arguments to body language. The nature of ones parents’ relationship can have a heavy impact on the way the child views how to communicate. Especially being around how their parents solved problems, whether it be constructively or resorted to conflict, it definitely can shape ones way of relating to others (Jarrett). Jarrett states that if your parents were forever bickering, or worse, they might have shaped your attachment style and could cast a cloud over your ability to form healthy relationships at work (Jarrett). Early on family life can be the factor with the largest impact on a child’s early psychological development.
Summary of article one
Aloia’s study examined emerging adults satisfaction with parent–child relationships as a function of family communication orientations and relational maintenance behaviors (Aloia, 2019). Two hundred and eleven emerging adults completed measures assessing family communication orientations, those being conversation and conformity. Along with relational maintenance behaviors such as shared tasks, shared networks, positivity, openness, and assurances and satisfaction with parent–child relationships (Aloia, 2019). Doing this would show the impact of not only the amount of communication but the quality of it as well in the relationship between the parent and young adult, and how satisfied, content they are. Stronger and more satisfied relationships had more open and meaningful conversations covering a wide range of topics. While conformed represented a family climate in which homogeneity of attitudes, values, and beliefs is expected which results in a less satisfied, unhappy, low quality relationship (Aloia, 2019).
The quality of parent–child relationships is an important component of emerging adult development and well-being (Aloia, 2019). Aloia defines emerging adult development as ages 18-25 and touches on how this is when young adults truly make the jump to adulthood. Being that the median ages of marriage are 26 for women and 28 for men. Also, research shows nearly 70% of high school students attend some form of higher education (Aloia, 2019). Aloia is saying that young adults become true adults later in todays world than previously before in time, and the communication with the parents increases as well. This finding demonstrates that when parents create family climates that contain consistent, open and truthful conversation between family members during this emerging adult development period, children experience their relationships as more satisfying (Aloia, 2019).
Results showed that family conversation orientation and relational maintenance behaviors were positively associated with relationship satisfaction and family conformity orientation did not associated with relationship satisfaction at all. Also, findings indicated support for a model in which positivity and openness mediated the association between family conversation orientation and children’s satisfaction with parent–child relationships (Aloia, 2019). Also noting that positive relational communication between family members may also promote adaptive behavior within other social associations (Aloia, 2019). Concluding that even when a young adult, the communication between child and parent still have a large impact on not only how their relationship is as a family but how that persons behavior is in different social settings.
Summary of article two
A promising theoretical lens for contextualizing health behaviors in social influences is health lifestyles (Mollborn & Lawrence, 2018). Mollborn and Lawrence state that health lifestyles are sets of interrelated health behaviors, found in group-based identities, and shaped by social structure and human agency. Their study had two goals, one being to describe the development of children’s health lifestyles from first through eighth grade; the second being to understand how these lifestyles are shaped by families, peers, and schools (Mollborn & Lawrence, 2018). By using nationally representative data from the 1998-to-2007 Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), Mollborn and Lawrence conducted class analyses to model predominant health lifestyles of U.S. children. Findings preliminarily supported their theoretical model of health lifestyle development, which incorporates multiple social contexts and developmental change (Mollborn & Lawrence, 2018).
Childhood is important for studying health lifestyles because of its affects for later life, a crucial foundation. School readiness of cognition, behavior, and health are influenced by early childhood health lifestyles (Mollborn & Lawrence 2018). Children’s early development predicts adolescent and adult educational and socioeconomic outcomes and health; both early childhood and mid to late adolescence are periods of change when new health behaviors emerge and become incorporated into these health lifestyles (Mollborn & Lawrence 2018).
Parents do their best to ensure that their children’s lifestyles are healthy and try their best to do so but social class leaves families with different resources, knowledge, and practices that influence their chances of success (Mollborn & Lawrence, 2018). Meaning health lifestyles are shaped by the pressures of the “competitive social relations” created by social hierarchies in which different groups definitions of healthy behaviors are socially contested (Mollborn & Lawrence, 2018). Compared to early childhood, when parents have considerable control over children’s health behaviors, in middle childhood and early adolescence, children become increasingly less monitored by parents (Mollborn & Lawrence, 2018). This allows them to move toward the progression, adaptability of agency and structure that characterizes adults’ health lifestyles rather than having the same one as before, their child health lifestyle.
Mollborn & Lawrence’s findings contribute by showing that this blend of consistency and inconsistency holds true not just within time points but also across age within individuals. Children’s earlier health lifestyles predict later ones but do so rather weakly. Because health lifestyles at each time point are influential for understanding later lifestyles, social influences throughout childhood, and not just those that occur early or most recently, are important (Mollborn & Lawrence, 2018).
Comparisons of Articles
In the popular press article, the main idea is parents have the largest factor in how a child’s communication development is affected and could be the root of issue as to why, for example, (in the given scenario) someone can’t form healthy relationships with their peers and or coworkers. While Aloia’s study in article one does agree that parents do play a large role in a child’s development, especially communication and with others, Aloia’s focus was on a different age range. Although the age range Aloia suggested still viewed, referred to the person as young adult, child, just not touching on early child life. Being that Aloia’s research found that parents still play a large role on someone’s development and communication at the young adult phase of 18-25 and has an effect on their interactions with others, it can strongly resonate with Jarrett’s statements from the popular press article.
In the second article, what Mollborn and Lawrence believe is a person’s development changes over time, including the way they communicate, develop, and live their life. Along with those changes, people also see a change in those who influence them and how they view their selves. In contrast to the popular press article, they are quite opposite. Mollborn and Lawrence would argue to Jarrett that yes, the parents did have an effect on how the person at the job communicates and interacts with others but, they most likely are not the largest or most important factor as to why. They would add on, that person since living or being in consistent contact with their parents has experienced a wide variety of things from middle school to high school, possible college and possibly several jobs. Along with all that there comes numerous interacts with other people and simply time and events that will change the makeup of someone’s lifestyle. Between the two scholarly articles, both do agree parents play a key role in the development of communication, just to certain levels or to a certain extent.
Conclusion
Between the three of them, there are strong valid similarities between the popular press and article one. While article two refutes the both of them and also has their own fair share of validity. The popular press article and both scholarly articles acknowledge and state how family, parents do have the very first role of large impact on the development, lifestyle, and communication of a person. Jarret believes the development of your communication from family, parent as a very young child can affect and carry on with you into adulthood and can influence how you interact with others. While Aloia believes that they quality of communication between a young adult and their parents has a large effect on how they may interact with people in and outside of the family, and how they may view their own self. Being that Aloia’s study was specifically on young adults aged 18-25 and she found that parents have this key factor in how a young adult communicates with others, Aloia and Jarret resonate very much even with different age ranges which may even prove to connect their beliefs even more. Mollborn & Lawrence do believe parents, family do have an important impact on the lifestyle, development and communication on a child, they believe it fades away as they grow older and children find new influences that alter what they have learned from their family, parents. We see these articles all believe in the large impact family, parents have in the makeup of how one communicates and how that develops.