Understanding the Relationship Between Family Communication Patterns and Communicative Resilience Through Homesickness

We report results of an empirical study that used family communication patterns (FCPs) theory and the communication theory of resilience (CTR) to examine the experience of, and responses to, homesickness. Specifically, we tested the extent to which conversation and conformity orientations predicted resilience responses, both linearly and curvilinearly, as well as whether homesickness mediated the association between FCPs and resilience. Data were collected from a racially diverse sample of 321 participants across two universities. Results supported the mediation model, finding that homesickness is associated with diminished resilience responses of adapting, reframing, and using identity anchors. Regarding FCPs, homesickness was notably low, and resilience responses notably high, when participants reported heightened conversation orientation along with a moderate level of conformity orientation. We consider whether this might serve as evidence of a fifth family type not yet identified in FCPs theorizing.