Family Communication Patterns and Health

Abstract

This entry introduces family communication patterns theory (FCPT) and the ecological perspective it provides in the study of health communication by investigating the persistent influence of family communication. FCPT maintains that through consistent, long‐term communication, families create a shared social reality of the world, influencing individual beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Family communication patterns create a stable and predictable schema that guides how individuals understand and communicate with the world. Families create this schema through two communication dimensions: conversation orientation and conformity orientation. Conversation orientation is the degree to which the family communicates openly about an assortment of topics. Conformity orientation is the extent to which the family stresses uniformity of beliefs and values and emphasizes family hierarchy and obedience to authority figures. These two communication dimensions interact consistently, creating four family types: consensual, pluralist, protective, and laissez‐faire. These family communication patterns have been found to influence individual health communication, attitudes, and behaviors. Further, a family's conversation and conformity orientations influence their likelihood of talking about certain health topics, rules governing the depth of certain health conversations, and the frequency of health conversations. The entry concludes with future directions for research on FCPT in health communication contexts.