Sons' remembered communication experiences with their mothers: a research proposal

Abstract

Families are increasingly the focus of research, yet communication between parents and children has received little attention. Family communication research has focused primarily on relationships of the marital couples, and generally the child's perspective is not attended to. In addition, communication in families has been studied by observing the interactions and behaviors between family members. Missing from this approach is what is happening in the minds of interactants. A relationship is not defined only by those behaviors that occur between two people, but also by the meanings those in relationship attach to those behaviors. In terms of parent-child relationships studied in communication research, the majority of the work has involved the mother-daughter relationship, followed by father-son, father-daughter and lastly mother-son. This is reflected in popular and contemporary literature also. Many contemporary writers state that a mother has tremendous psychological power and that the emotional bond a man has with his mother is likely to be the most deeply rooted connection in his life. For many boys she is the only person they can trust. However men, unlike women, seem to find it difficult to share their feelings and memories about their mothers that go beyond reverence or simple expressions of disagreements. Scholarly research on mother-child communication is not without contradictions. Some studies report sex differences in parent-child interaction such as that mothers encouraged dependency and were more nurturing for their toddler sons than for their toddler daughters, while other studies have shown that mothers treat sons and daughters similarly. Researchers do concur, however, that mothers tend to talk more and use more supportive communication, such as praise, approval, agreement and collaboration with daughters than with sons This research project involves a review of the literature on the topic of the mother-son relationship, both popular as well as academic literature. Research questions pertaining to the communication experiences that sons remember having with their mothers are developed. The methodology is explained: the first two stages will use focus groups and individual interviews. The purpose of these interviews is to gather recollections and stories concerning mother-son communication. These stories will provide the data for fantasy theme analysis, which involves identifying the shared experiences and the ways in which these are recalled, of the focus group and individual interview participants. The final stage will use Q-Methodology, which involves building a Q-deck of 60 cards with each containing a communication episode; participants will then sort the cards as they most relate to their experience. Analysis of the Q-sort results will show if there are distinct types, or clusters, of mother-son relationships and the kinds of communication behaviors found in each. The actual research will be completed at a later date.