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Therapeutic Effect on Mother-Adolescent Communication and How the Change in Communication Relates to Change in Individual Problem Behaviors

Guo, Xiamei
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1371819260

Abstract Details

2013, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Human Ecology: Human Development and Family Science.
An association between parent-child communication and adolescents’ psychological health and behavioral outcomes has been consistently documented in the literature. Recent literature regarding the child-to-parent influence on parent’s depressive symptoms and alcohol use suggests that parent-adolescent communication may be related to parents’ psychological and behavioral outcomes as well. The majority of prior studies on parent-child communication are limited since they only assessed communication variables at the individual level, but not at the dyadic level. In addition, whether family therapy can promote positive communication between parents and children after treatment completion is not well researched. The present study examined the relationship between mother-adolescent communication and problem behaviors among a sample of substance abusing mothers and their adolescent children. The positive and negative verbal content mothers and adolescents exhibited during a communication task were assessed. Individual problem behaviors included maternal depressive symptoms and substance use, as well as adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing behaviors. In addition, the present study examined whether home- and office-based family therapy yields more improvement than a control condition in the positive and negative verbal content mothers and adolescents exhibited during a communication task from baseline to the 6-month follow-up. The current sample consisted of 66 pairs of mothers and adolescents (ages 11 to 16) who completed a communication task at baseline and at the 6-month follow-up. The verbal content that mothers and adolescents exhibited during the communication task was coded using the Living in Family Environments (LIFE; Hops et al., 1990) coding system. Negative verbal content included all codes with complaints, oppositional, command unaccountable, and self complaint content. Positive verbal content included all codes with facilitative, solicitous, problem statement, and proposed solution content. The Generalized Sequential Querier program 5.1.10 (GSEQ, Bakeman & Quera, 2011) was used to conduct the sequential analysis. It was hypothesized that higher levels of individual problem behaviors among mothers and adolescents would be associated with less negative verbal content and more positive verbal content exhibited during the communication task. This association was expected to be both cross-sectional and prospective. In addition, those who received home- and office-based family therapy were expected to exhibit less negative and more positive verbal content during the communication task at the 6-month follow-up than at baseline, whereas those who were in the control condition were expected to show no significant change in mother-adolescent communication behaviors. Overall, the findings provided partial support for the hypotheses. Results showed that higher levels of maternal depressive symptoms were associated with less frequent positive verbal content by adolescents. As mothers’ quantity of alcohol use and frequency of substance use increased, adolescents were less likely to express negative verbal content towards mothers and were more likely to express positive verbal content. As adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing behaviors increased, they were more likely to display negative verbal content and were less likely to display positive verbal content. An increase in the frequency of adolescents’ and mothers’ negative verbal content and in the likelihood of adolescents responding positively toward mothers' positive verbal content were observed among mothers and adolescents who received home-based family therapy. Taken together, the current findings were mostly consistent with previous studies that examined family communication. Home-based family therapy may facilitate the reciprocity of mothers’ positive verbal content by adolescents better than office-based family therapy and the control condition. The current findings also showed that communication between mothers and adolescents is linked with their individual problem behaviors. Such findings provide preliminary information for understanding mothers’ substance use and depressive symptoms in the family context. The current findings also yield support for treating mothers’ substance use and depressive symptoms with family therapy. Family therapy, especially when conducted at the client’s home, appears to differentially promote positive communication between family members.
Natasha Slesnick (Advisor)
161 p.
Families and Family Life

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Guo, X. (2013). Therapeutic Effect on Mother-Adolescent Communication and How the Change in Communication Relates to Change in Individual Problem Behaviors [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1371819260

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Guo, Xiamei. Therapeutic Effect on Mother-Adolescent Communication and How the Change in Communication Relates to Change in Individual Problem Behaviors. 2013. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1371819260.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Guo, Xiamei. "Therapeutic Effect on Mother-Adolescent Communication and How the Change in Communication Relates to Change in Individual Problem Behaviors." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1371819260

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1371819260
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© 2013, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.