Abstract
This study aims at investigating the parent-adolescent communication of Finnish families from a multi informant perspective. Thirteen- and fourteen-year-old adolescents (n = 171) and their parents were asked to complete a questionnaire examining positive and problematic communication between the two parties. Information about their family structure was collected. The results indicated an interrelationship between parental and adolescent assessments, particularly regarding negative aspects of communication. The boys assessed their communication with parents as more positive than did the girls. The results showed that the mothers still are the synchronizing hearts of communication in modern families, whereas the fathers’ roles in family communication were more modest suggesting that the stereotypical roles in Finnish families persist even today.
Highlights
The children enter the school system from a variety of different kinds of families every day
The boys’ model [χ2(1) = .815, p = .37] regarding Negative aspects of communication (Figure 5) was very similar to the girls’ model, but with one exception: the paternal assessments were not associated with the maternal assessments. These results suggested that, in particular, the assessments of Negative aspects of parent-adolescent communication by adolescents and mothers and by mothers and fathers covariated— that is, shared a common change to a statistically significant extent. These results further showed that while a relatively common view was held by all family members concerning the problems in family communication, their views on positive family communication were not so unified
A common finding has been that family members communication patterns are quite complex and, above all, the quality of communication between family members may be interpreted differently in different time points at least to some extent
Summary
The children enter the school system from a variety of different kinds of families every day. Nuclear family with two married parents and their children used to be the expected family structure in Finland and elsewhere. Adolescent, maternal, and paternal views of their communicative interactions with each other have been found to differ to some extent, regardless of the family structure (Callan & Noller, 1986). Adolescents have been shown to view their interaction with family members in a more negative light than their parents do (Callan & Noller, 1986; Epstein & Ward, 2011; Xiao et al, 2011). Family members have been usually found to interact in accordance with more or less stereotypical role-taking traditions (Noller & Callan, 1988)
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