Toward a Theory of Family Communication.

In this article, the authors develop a theory of family communication that is based on the schematic representation of relational knowledge. They discuss pertinent issues surrounding family communication and develop a general model of the role of relational schemas for interpersonal communication. Taking the specific environment of family communication into consideration, the authors then develop a theory of family communication based on a family relationship schema and describe the schema's location in cognition, its content, and its role in family communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]