3 Theoretical Approaches To Understanding Communication In The Family

03-Le Poire-4786.qxd9/28/20055:12 PMPage 57Theoretical Approaches to Understanding Communication in the Familyneglect, or abandon their children. These behaviors are simply not part ofthe expectation of motherhood and in fact run counter to notions of what“good mothers” should do. In addition, “fathers should earn an income” isanother example of a powerful role expectation. Stay-at-home dads oftenbecome the brunt of jokes regarding slothfulness, laziness, and the like—thisat a time when the value of stay-at-home mothers’ jobs is estimated at 131,471 per year (O’Brien, 2002). Nonetheless, violations of expectationsfor role behavior can have very powerful evaluations associated with them.Performances include all behaviors associated with a particular role.Good daughters should obey their mothers, clean their rooms, never swear(in front of their mothers!), be respectful, and so on. Sisters should be loyal.Fathers should be strong, rational, industrious, and hard working. I’m confident that if pressed, you could delineate a whole set of behaviors associatedwith any familial role. According to Goffman (1959), these performances arecarried out on a stage. The front stage is where you perform your role. Forinstance, mothers are expected to perform their role as “mother” in thehome environment and whenever they are in the presence of their children.However, you would not expect this same woman to perform her role ofmother in the boardroom with her colleagues. Her colleagues would findthis highly offensive indeed because this situation would call for front-stagebehavior as “professional/colleague/coworker.” This same situation couldbe considered back stage for the mother role because the woman may feelfreer to swear, be less likely to cook, and be less vigilant about the safetyof her environment than she would be at home (she might not put safetycovers over her office electrical outlets, for instance). In other words, theback stage is anywhere where you do not feel the pressure to perform one ofyour primary roles. You can thus “let down” on the behaviors that wereimportant in the other role. Of course, according to Goffman, you areprobably performing some other role there because we are either alwaysperforming when we are in the presence of others or carrying around a “generalized other” for whom one performs at all times. In other words,Goffman would argue that a woman who highly identifies with her mothering role will always behave in ways that are consistent with the performanceof that role (almost as if her child could always see her).Finally, if you have ever been on a stage, you will be aware that a stagehas wings behind the curtains and off to the sides where actors prepare fortheir roles. Similarly then, Goffman (1959) argues that wings are those areaswhere mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and so on prepare for their roles.When I choose my clothing (costume), I’ll choose apparel that is appropriate for my role. This makes some sense because I certainly did not wear silkblouses at home for my daughter to spit up on when she was an infant, andsimilarly, I don’t wear my “painting” jeans around the office. In addition,we may have several performance experts in the wings who help us preparefor our roles. Not unlike other mothers I know, I frequently called good ol’big sis to get the scoop on the best techniques for getting my daughter to57

03-Le Poire-4786.qxd9/28/20055:12 PM58Page 58FAMILY COMMUNICATIONsleep on a schedule, which medicines work best on high fevers in the middleof the night, and when I could go back to work without upsetting the attachment balance. Like most performance experts, she was also not given anycredit as I carried out my role, pretending that I had had the “intuitivemother wisdom” all along.Family RolesFamily roles are important to the extent that they dictate behavior andaffect the communication associated with those roles. Families are a hightask situation in that many jobs must be performed for groups to functionas families. Roles within the family help us coordinate task completion. Inmy own family, for instance, I am in charge of educational development.Anything that comes under the heading “education” falls to me. When Huw(my oldest stepson) began the process of applying to college, I was wellaware that I would be the one in charge of guiding him through this task.The boys’ biological mother, however, is an emergency room nurse. She istherefore responsible for the maintenance of physical health, and all doctors’appointments and the like fall to her. When Huw dropped the motorcycle,badly scraping his knee, it was his mother who came over to our house toclean the wound with a toothbrush (no kidding!). As this illustration shows,roles help us organize who does what in families.Nurturing RolesNurturing roles include many different subroles and accompanyingtasks. Nurturing basically includes the provision of care, warmth, and anenvironment capable of encouraging the growth and development of familymembers. This can include the provider, who supplies the resources requiredto allow for the types of activities necessary to encourage growth and development. Nurturing roles also include a nurturer who provides care in all itsvarious forms (e.g., feeding, bathing, cuddling, communicating). Overlappingwith these roles is the developer, or the person who is in charge of ensuringgrowth and development as a human across physical, social, emotional, andintellectual realms. Finally, included in the nurturing roles is the health careprovider, or the person who generally maintains family members’ healththrough arranging for doctors’ visits, applying bandages, dispensing medicine, and the like.Provider(s). The family member in charge of provision of resourcessupplies the money, food, clothes, and other durable items that maintain thehousehold. Historically, fathers’ economic contributions to developmenthave been more heavily valued than their contributions to child care and

03-Le Poire-4786.qxd9/28/20055:12 PMPage 59Theoretical Approaches to Understanding Communication in the Familyhousework (Griswold, 1993). Although the changes in society cited earliermay make it seem less likely now than in the past, this still appears to be thecase in the majority of households. In fact, reviews of the extensive literatureon economic resources and marriage show consistently that greater economic resources are significantly associated with higher rates of marriage formen (e.g., Xie, Raymo, Goyett, & Thorton, 2003). This is especially the casefor measures of earning potential (current earnings, earnings over the next5 years, future earnings, past earnings, and lifetime earnings). These samemeasures of earning potential did not predict marriage for women. Furthermore, as women’s earnings rise, they become more independent and reporta decline in the desire for marriage (Oppenheimer, 1997). Finally, only 23%of women in dual-earner couples earned as much as, or more than, their husbands in 1997 (Brennan, Chait Barnett, & Gareis, 2001). This figure is consistent with a more recent analysis of U.S. Census 2000 data showing that19% to 30% of wives in dual-career families earn more than their husbands(Winkler, McBride, & Andrews, 2005). However, this trend appears transitory in that only 60% of couples maintain this disparity for more than3 years. Thus, there still exists a strong societal pressure in our society forthe man to be the primary resource provider for the family. So much so thatif he is deemed less likely to earn money or the woman makes more money,he is less desirable as a marriage partner.Regardless of this pressure on the man to be the primary resource providerof the family, we are beginning to see a preponderance of mothers enteringthe workforce as well. As you may recall from Chapter 2, the number ofmarried-couple families with wives in the labor force has increased from 31%in 1976 to 51% in 2000 (compared with 70% of women without an infant).This figure is even higher for educated women (64%) and black women(66%; Bachu & O’Connell, 2001). Remember also that the percentage ofworking mothers increases as their children grow, with working mothers withchildren under 6 increasing to 59% and those with children between 6 and17 increasing to 74% (U.S. Census Bureau, 2003a). Thus, between half andthree quarters of mothers work outside the home.Certain factors enhance the likelihood that mothers will be resourceproviders. Mothers cite economic need as the most pressing consideration(Israelson, 1989). However, women who score higher on traditional malecharacteristics are also more likely to work (Krogh, 1985), whereas womenwho are traditionally more feminine are more likely to take on more feminine caregiving tasks (Burroughs, Turner, & Turner, 1984). Furthermore, ahusband with more pro-feminist views is also more likely to have a wife inthe workplace (Biaggio, Mohan, & Baldwin, 1985).Nurturers. The provision of nurturance includes providing care, support,and warmth (including, but not limited to, child care and household tasks).Similar to resource providers, nurturers seem equally split along gender lines.59

03-Le Poire-4786.qxd9/28/20055:12 PMPage 6060FAMILY COMMUNICATION4035302520151050Before ParenthoodWivesFigure 3.1After Addition ofa ChildHusbandsNumber of Household ChoresSOURCE: Houston and Holmes (2004).Whereas men are expected to be the primary resource providers, women areexpected to be the nurturer-caregivers. This gender division is apparent bothbefore and after children are added to the family. Before parenthood, wivescomplete 67% of the household chores (3.9 chores a day on average), andhusbands complete the remaining 33% of chores (1.9 chores a day on average) (Huston & Vangilisti, 1995; MacDermid, Huston, & McHale, 1990).Following the addition of a child, there is a sixfold increase in the numberof family-related activities performed, from 5.8 per day to 36.2 per day (seeFigure 3.1). New mothers increase to 5.3 household tasks and 22.7 childcare tasks. New fathers, in comparison, increase their household tasks to2.4 per day while accruing an additional 5.9 child care tasks. Women indual-earning couples report spending an average of 15 hours a week onhousehold tasks compared with men’s 6.8 hours (Stevens, Kiger, & Riley,2001). As these numbers make obvious, women are completing more traditionally nurturing tasks than are men.Although this disparity in task load is striking to the observer, womencomplete up to two thirds of household work before they feel that the division of labor is unfair (Lennon & Rosenfield, 1994). However, women whocontribute highly to the family income are more likely to perceive an unequaldivision of household labor as unfair compared with women who earn lessthan their husbands (Stevens et al., 2001). Furthermore, the perception ofrelational and psychological shared parenting is more important in predicting marital satisfaction than the actual division of the child care tasks(Ehrenberg, Gearing-Small, Hunter, & Small, 2001). Men, alternatively, feelthat the workload is unjustly divided when 36% of the tasks fall on them.Interestingly, men contribute more to the household and perceive greater

03-Le Poire-4786.qxd9/28/20055:12 PMPage 61Theoretical Approaches to Understanding Communication in the Familyfairness when both they and their wives perceive their contributions to bemore competent (Grote, Naylor, & Clark, 2002).Consistent with these findings, women who work outside the home stillperceive that their primary role is as nurturer in the home (MacDermid et al.,1990), as do their husbands. Both spouses appear to be comfortable withthis understanding (McHale & Huston, 1984). Even among women whowork 30 hours or more, only 12% thought that men should be equallyresponsible for chores (Crouter, Perry-Jenkins, Huston, & McHale, 1987).Consistently, wives who became mothers reduce their involvement in workfor pay and increase their involvement in household work (MacDermidet al., 1990). Thus, it appears that in at least two thirds of families, both menand women perceive that women should be (and are) the primary providersof nurturance in the family (Gilbert, 1994). One potential explanation forthis gender role division is that women’s self-esteem may be linked to therole of primary caregiver, particularly when the child is an infant (Josephs,Markus, & Tafarodi, 1992). Lest it be thought that all dual-working couples must split tasks along gender lines, Gilbert (1994) found that nearly onethird of dual-career couples were “role sharing,” in that both spouses wereactively involved in household and parenting duties.Development Expert (physical, social, emotional, and intellectual). Closelylinked to the role of nurturer-caregiver is the role of physical, social, emotional, and intellectual development. Obviously, if women perform more ofthe child care tasks, they will be preparing the food, dressing the child, andso on to ensure the physical growth and development of the child. However,it is also obvious that the ability to provide food, clothing, and shelterdepends on the resource provider’s ability to furnish these necessities.Furthermore, fathers are frequently involved in the physical developmentof the child in terms of sports achievements and rough-and-tumble play(Huston & Holmes, 2004). More fathers are coaches, push the bike for thefirst ride, and are outside throwing the ball with their child. Physical development includes both growth and accomplishment. Further considerationof these contributions of parents is provided in Chapter 6 on socializingchildren.Social development includes becoming a socioemotionally competentcommunicator. Although both parents contribute to this process throughtheir many modeled interactions with their children, many children rely ontheir mothers for information about how to interact socially. Mothers of3- to 5-year-olds were found to have a direct effect on their children’s socialcompetence through their coaching and their communication style with theirchildren (Mize & Petit, 1997). Linking physical and social development,most adolescents acquire information regarding sex from their mothers, andtheir mothers are more effective at reducing risky sexual behavior and theoutcomes associated with them (Jaccard, Dittus, & Gordon, 2000). Thus,mothers may be highly influential in socializing social competence.61

03-Le Poire-4786.qxd629/28/20055:12 PMPage 62FAMILY COMMUNICATIONConsistently, mothers may be more instrumental in encouraging emotionaldevelopment as well; mothers have been known to encourage the expressionof “strong emotions” (anger, frustration, pride) by their sons comparedwith the weaker emotions (sadness, fear) (e.g., Mulac, Studley, Wiemann, &Bradac, 1987; Shields, 1987). Finally, mothers are highly instrumental inencouraging intellectual development. In fact, parents seem to have almostintuitive abilities to stimulate their children’s learning (Papousek, Papousek,& Haekel, 1987), and most caregiver behaviors provide teaching to theirinfants (Van Egeren & Barratt, 2004). Mothers are particularly adept at stimulating their infants; most frame their communication to infants as “motherese,” or specialized speech addressed to infants (Yingling, 1995). Given thatmothers most often adapt their work schedules to accommodate the needs ofthe children (Chait Barnett, Gareis, Boone James, & Steele, 2003), it is highlylikely that mothers also provide the most focus with regard to academicachievements as they assist with homework and in other ways provide thegroundwork for intellectual growth (e.g., reading to the child and otherwisecommunicating with the child in ways that encourage intellectual maturation;Laakso, Poikkeus, Eklund, & Lyytenin, 2004).Health Care Provider. Health care provision is the last role that falls undernurturance. Not surprisingly, because women are doing a majority of thechild care tasks, they are frequently relied on to nurse their babies through illnesses; arrange for doctors, dentists, and eye exams; and generally attempt tomaintain the health of their offspring. It is frequently the case that they nursetheir spouses as well. In addition, extended families can be included here inthat children are now nursing their elderly parents in the home, and morepositive outcomes are expected in mother-daughter than mother-son relationships (Cicirelli, 2003). Furthermore, more mothers are portrayed as fulfilling the caregiving role in magazine depictions, and these magazines (mostlyaimed at mothers) include child’s health issues as a major topic (FrancisConnolly, 2003). Only mothers were the focus of a research project examining the beliefs of mothers regarding potential injuries to their preschoolchildren (Weatherman, 2003). It is fair to assume from this research thatmore women are expected to fulfill health care roles in the family.Resource provision and nurturing roles across family forms. Based on thisreview of findings, it appears that both men and women play the resourceprovision and nurturing (nurturing, development, health care) roles now.Regardless of this verifiable fact, it still appears to be the case that the man isexpected to be the primary resource provider, based on the fact that earningpotential is a consistent predictor of marriage for men, and the woman isexpected to be the primary nurturer, based on the fact that she will cut backon outside work-related activities and ungrudgingly complete a greater shareof the household and child-rearing responsibilities. This proves especiallyproblematic for single mothers raising children (84% of all single-parent

03-Le Poire-4786.qxd9/28/20055:12 PMPage 63Theoretical Approaches to Understanding Communication in the Familyhomes), because the mother head of household is often expected to bethe resource provider and the nurturer. This may account for the fact thatup to one third of mother-headed households live below the poverty line(Connecticut Health Policy Project, 2003). Single mothers struggle to fulfillboth the resource provision and nurturer roles simultaneously. As we haveseen above, most women place greater role salience on their nurturingmother role and spend less time at work or leave work altogether when theirchildren are small. Thus, single mothers experience a great deal of role strainas they attempt to balance out resource provision and nurturing roles. Thisstrain should play itself out in communication in the family such that themother who must work to support her children has less time to spend communicating in nurturing ways with her children (e.g., less time to help withhomework, to have a leisurely cuddle in the morning before school, to chatover dinner) and may experience more role strain and stress, which may alsoplay itself out in the quality of the communication when communicationdoes occur.Such role strain should also be apparent for single fathers, although thereappear to be fewer single fathers living below the poverty line, which indicates that they may prefer their resource provision role over their nurturingrole (as society dictates and as indicated by the research indicating thatwomen do more of the child care tasks). Little research exists regarding theprovision of resources or nurturing in the blended home, but the researchreviewed in Chapter 2 indicating that stepmothers are more involvedin the parenting role than are stepfathers indicates that the traditional rolesof male resource provider and female nurturer continue to prevail in theblended home. Very little research exists regarding the breakdown ofresou

theories can be socially meaningful and applied. Theories give us a mechanism for understanding phenomena, and families are one such phenomenon. Theories provide us with several functions that will be highly useful as we go about the business of understanding families. First, theories can describe phenomenon (Littlejohn & Foss, 2005). In other