ABSTRACT
The communication of intact families can be best understood by looking at their family communication patterns. Family communication patterns emerge from the processes by which families create a shared social reality and broadly define four different family types. Each type is characterized by distinct communication behaviors that allow each type to function well in general, although each type has particular strengths and weaknesses in different areas of family life, such as conflict resolution or decision making. Because the parental relationship is particularly strong in intact families, parents in these families have a relatively greater influence on family communication through their marriage type and parenting style than parents in nonintact families.
