Family Communication Patterns and Cognitive Processing: Conversation and Conformity Orientations as Predictors of Informational Reception Apprehension

Abstract

This study examined the unique and combined associations among family communication patterns (i.e., conversation and conformity orientations) and young adult children's informational reception apprehension (IRA; i.e., listening anxiety and intellectual inflexibility). Participants included 592 young adult children from first-marriage and postdivorce families. Results indicated that family conversation orientations are inversely associated with listening anxiety and intellectual inflexibility, whereas conformity orientations are positively associated with both traits. Furthermore, an interaction effect between conversation and conformity orientations emerged, such that high-conformity orientations moderate (or reduce) the inverse association between family conversation orientations and young adults' listening anxiety. Among the more important implications in this study is the finding that family communication patterns have a small but meaningful association with individuals' information-processing skills.