Includes bibliographical references (p. 418) and index.

Communication and the family / Lorin Basden Arnold -- Family types -- Overview of family types, and structures / Lorin Basden Arnold -- Family communication and interpersonal communication competence in intact families / Joy Koesten -- Families' use of communicative coping in post-divorce families / Tamara Afifi -- Developing and maintaining grandparent-grandchild relationships / Sherry Holladay -- Conclusions and application : how can understanding family type impact you? / Lorin Basden Arnold -- The family as a system -- Overview of the family as a system / Lorin Basden Arnold -- Going away to college : a family turning point / Jo Anna Grant and Annette Folwell -- What does it mean to be a good father? / Kory Floyd and Mark Morman -- Dialectic characteristics and shadow realities in postmarital relationships / Elizabeth Graham and Autumn Edwards -- Conclusions and application : thinking about the systemic nature of your own family / Lorin Basden Arnold -- Family rules, rituals, and stories -- Overview of family communication processes / Lorin Basden Arnold -- Family home media rules and interactions / Chrys Egan -- Collective remembering and ritualized communication about the deceased parent in post-bereaved stepfamilies / Leah Bryant -- Storytelling as a means to communicate within the family : the orphan stories / Dennis Leoutsakas -- Conclusions and application : reflecting on your family rules, rituals, and stories / Lorin Basden Arnold -- Expressions of intimacy, support, and affection in the family -- Overview of family and intimacy and affection / Lorin Basden Arnold -- Negotiating intimate family ties in ordinary family interaction / Shirley Staske-Bell -- Sex and gender in relational maintenance / Marianne Dainton -- Family communication patterns and the socialization of support skills / Ascan Koerner and Laura Maki -- Conclusions and application : intimacy, affection, and social support in your life / Lorin Basden Arnold -- Expressions of power and conflict in the family -- Overview of family power, decision making, and conflict / Lorin Basden Arnold -- An exploratory investigation into family conflict roles / Patrick Hughes and Chelsea Stow -- "What do you do when your teenager hits you?" : exploring conflict tactics used by parents in adolescent-to-parent abuse / Nancy Eckstein -- Enacting conflict as resistance urban Indian women in Hindu arranged marriages / Devika Chawla -- Conclusions and application : power and conflict in your family experience / Lorin Basden Arnold -- Race/ethnicity and family -- Overview of race and ethnicity research / Lorin Basden Arnold -- "What shall I tell my daughters that are black" : oral history reflections of middle class African American motherhood in a culturally diverse community / Patricia Hill -- The mother-adolescent daughter tug-of-war : ethnicity's impact on the connection-autonomy dialectic / Barbara Penington -- Parenting in the interracial family : more alike than different / Suzy Prentiss -- Conclusions and application : issues of race and ethnicity in your family experience / Lorin Basden Arnold -- Sexuality and the family -- Overview of sexuality and the family / Lorin Basden Arnold -- Communicating about sex as a daughter, parent, and teacher / Amber Kinser -- The social context of lesbian family identity / Elizabeth Suter, Karla Bergen, and Karen Daas -- Conclusions and application : sexuality, family, and you / Lorin Basden Arnold -- Family health and disability issues -- Overview of family health and disability issues / Lorin Basden Arnold -- Talking with your children about alcohol and other drugs : are parents the anti-drug? / Michelle Miller-Day -- Disability in the family : narratives of experience and stories in children's literature / Elaine Jenks and Dena Beeghly -- Disability and parenting : representations of consequence / Joy Cypher -- Conclusions and application : considering health, disability, family, and socialization / Lorin Basden Arnold -- The family in mediated contexts -- Overview of the family in mediated contexts / Lorin Basden Arnold -- Family communication in the age of the internet / Traci Anderson, Kevin Pearce and Tara Crowell -- Social support and empowerment for mothers on a pregnancy bulletin board / Lorin Basden Arnold -- Where are the mommies? : a content analysis of women's magazines / Deb Swanson and Dede Johnston -- Conclusions and application : the media as part of your family life / Lorin Basden Arnold -- Conclusion : family communication research : past, present, & future.