The degree to which families can openly discuss, collaborate, and share ideas. Conversation orientation has shown to be a predictor of mental health outcomes. 

High conversation orientation families encourage high self-efficacy, self-esteem, and supportiveness. Lack of self-esteem is negatively correlated with aggression and symptoms of depression and anxiety. 



Conversation Orientation

The degree to which similar belief systems and behaviors are emphasized in the household. According to a study by Zarnaghash et al. (2013), conformity orientation does not significantly predict mental health outcomes in children. More research is required on the extremes of conformity attitudes and how they manifest in mental health conversations.

Conformity Orientation

Inter-generational co-searching, discussion, and group decision making about health behaviors and information may strengthen family bonds, encourage co-learning between parents and children, improve problem solving skills, and increase academic attainment. 

By working together to translate important health information, the entire family is empowered to participate regardless of varying language and technical skills. Emphasizing familial involvement is especially culturally significant to Latino populations.

Pros to Framing Health Information as a Family Asset

Involving developing children in the discussion of sensitive health information, the stress of translating between languages in medical settings, understanding and explaining advanced medical jargon, and crossing child-parent boundaries into co-dependency and over-reliance can put strain on family relationships. There is potential for co-searching and inter-generational decision-making strategies to inadvertently undermine parental self-efficacy and elicit mutual frustration.


Drawbacks to Framing Health Information as a Family Asset

Consisting of conversational and conformity dimensions, family communication patterns theory conceptualizes the way family heirarchies make decisions, transmit attitudes and beliefs, relate to one another, and elicit support. 

Grand Valley State University

The collective well-being, health behaviors, communication patterns, and relational stability of a family unit. Relationships and family environment can play a large role in psychological and physical health.


Family systems theory, family communication patterns theory, and other research in family health provide a social development perspective in health psychology.

Family Health

Introduced by Murray Bowen in the 1950s, family systems theory views households as emotional units with family members having interconnected lives and behavioral processes. Family environments, structures, routines, and relationships influence the development of each individual.

Family Systems Theory

Smith, S. L., DeGrace, B., Ciro, C., Bax, A., Hambrick, A., James, J., & Evans, A. (2017). Exploring families’ experiences of health: Contributions to a model of family health. Psychology, Health & Medicine, 22(10), 1239–1247. https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2017.1319069

Exploring families’ experiences of health: Contributions to a model of family health

Zarnaghash, M., Zarnaghash, M., & Zarnaghash, N. (2013). The relationship between family communication patterns and mental health. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 84, 405–410. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.06.575

The relationship between family communication patterns and mental health

Family Communication Patterns Theory

Also known as the causal variables, mediating factors for optimal family health include reflectiveness and adaptability. The processes of seeking understanding from one another and problem-solving indicate the importance of intentionality in maintaining healthy relationships and lifestyles.

Factors Mediating Family Health 

Balance, "all-togetherness", and living purposefully are associated with collective health promotion behaviors as well as environmental stability within the family unit. Choosing to prioritize family relationships and events and including all members in communication and decision-making are some strategies families can use to improve functioning.

Factors Supporting Family Health

Family identity and challenging circumstances can determine how a given household will respond to an event and how resiliently they behave. Family identity consists of the shared beliefs, customs, and tastes a unit has. Challenging circumstances weaken bonds and create a disconnect that can increase the impact of external stressors. Families with strong values and high emotional attunement fare better during stressful times.

Factors Influencing Family Health

Sleep hygiene habits can be influenced by other family members and are often mimicked. Depending on the functionality of the family dynamic, poor habits promoted within the household can increase risk for hypertension, especially in youth.

Family Dynamics in Sleep Health and Hypertension

Not to be conflated with the family structure/unit, the environment is the conditions, circumstances, norms, and resources surrounding a family. The interaction between family and environment is bidirectional, and individual family members may perceive the same environmental stimuli differently. 


Family Environment

In the discipline of psychology, routines are defined as organized, predictable, and intentional sets of behaviors repeated frequently in day to day life. Routines can include physical and mental components and can involve some or all family members. 
Routines can provide environmental and emotional stability within households.

Family Routines

Family dynamics encompass the ways in which individual members interact with each other based on their hierarchies, roles, and identities, and how familial relationships are perceived. Elements of family dynamics include:

• Structure

• Cohesion 

• Conflict style 

• Parenting style 

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