ABSTRACT
Family Communication Patterns Theory (FCPT) is a general theory of family communication that focuses on parent-child communication concerned with establishing a shared social reality. It identifies basic processes of coming to a shared agreement that impact not only concurrent communication behaviors, but long-term information processing, psychosocial, and behavioral outcomes as well. With the reconceptualization of FCPs came a new set of goals for FCPT. FCPT is neither interpretive nor critical; it claims to describe what family communication is and how it functions, not how it might be interpreted within a given context or what it ought to be based on a particular ideological perspective. FCPT is neither interpretive nor critical; it claims to describe what family communication is and how it functions, not how it might be interpreted within a given context or what it ought to be based on a particular ideological perspective.
