Communication research
"Whatever you say, Mom:” Child Responsiveness and Parental Life Satisfaction
Abstract
The present study investigated the relationship between children’s responsive behaviors, parental communication styles, and parental life satisfaction. Participants included 238 parents ages 19 to 78 of primarily emerging adults (18-24 years-old) and were surveyed using measures from several different instruments. The findings of the data indicated significant relationships existed between all child responsiveness constructs with eight of the eleven communication style dimensions, concluding that parents and children who respond to each other’s disclosures in a friendly, impression-leaving, relaxed, attentive, precise, expressive, and open manner were more likely have fulfilling relationships. Parental life satisfaction was found to have significant relationship with child responsiveness and children ages 18-24. Jiang et al.’s (2016) found that perceived parental responsiveness mediates child self-disclosure and parent-child relationship quality. In the same way, the present study found that child responsiveness mediates parental self-disclosure. High levels of mutual disclosure would indicate higher satisfaction within the parent-child relationship and in the family, because self-disclosure is an essential aspect of forming deep, meaningful, and intimate relationships.
