ABSTRACT
The following chapter overviews recent research advances in the area of family communication during emerging adulthood. This review is focused on the multiple systems of communication during emerging adulthood and their impact on healthy and unhealthy individual and family development. These systems include family systems, peer systems, and communication with romantic partners. The role technology has played in shifting both the method and the context of family communication during emerging adulthood is also highlighted. Technology has created avenues to both strengthen and weaken family communication during emerging adulthood and both perspectives are considered. Family life course and social learning theories are then suggested as potential avenues for continued theoretical advancement. Finally, empirical limitations and directions for future scholarship are overviewed.
