Familial Roles in Health Communication

Most individuals experience life events within a central social grouping—that of their families of origin and choice. Communication within the family impacts how the family functions as a unit, as well as individual and family outcome measures of health and well-being. Within the context of a family, health should be considered as more than “just a topic of conversation” but as something that plays a central role in family functioning and the experiences that are shared, creates a sense of what it means to be a member of a particular family, and impacts individual and group attitudes and beliefs about health-related behaviors.

From the perspective of health communication, examining the role of families in health is valuable because of its impact on health outcomes. Across the ...