ABSTRACT
This chapter explores patterns of family interaction, beginning with a look at the quantity of time that family members spend together. The primary focus of the chapter is on family communication quality, using the lens of family communication patterns theory – a typology of family communication climates related to a family’s degree of conversation- and conformity-orientation. The second half of the chapter introduces and conceptualizes family communication processes of power, decision making, and conflict. We explore how power in families is affected by resources, perceptions, and ideologies about gender and culture, as well as how power is manifested in family roles and rules. Next, we present models of family decision making and explore some of the everyday decision-making processes in families. Finally, we review family conflict strategies, such as direct, indirect, cooperative, and competitive strategies, as well as how conflict strategies vary by family communication climates. The chapter closes with a look at the effect that family conflict has on members’ well-being and how family members, especially children, can be triangulated into family conflict.
