Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Family Communication Patterns: Measuring Intra-Personal Perceptions Of Inter-Personal Relationships, L. David Ritchie, Mary Anne Fitzpatrick

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

Mass communication researchers interested in family communication have traditionally assumed that family norms are shared by all family members, and apparent disagreement has been ascribed to instrument unreliability rather than to the influence of family structure. A survey of 308 adolescent children and their parents, using the Family Communication Pattern (FCP) instrument, yields evidence of systematic patterns of disagreement between mothers and fathers as well as between parents and children. These results suggest that future theories of family communication cannot ignore the influence of intra-familial conflict and power relationships on communication norms and habits.