Communication in family and marriage is a key factor in enhancing satisfaction and happiness of members in the family. Good family communications improve cohesion and adaptability dimensions establishing harmony within the family environment. Poor communication inhibits resolving problems and response to problems. Another significant factor in communication is emotional intelligence which involves acknowledging the emotions of others. Sympathy and emotional intelligence are some key measurement criteria for emotional intelligence. The high flexibility accustomed with emotional intelligence allows for family communication to be improved. This improvement is often achieved through enhancing impulse-control and stress-tolerance. Communication is also important in establishing and maintaining marital harmony. The level of happiness in a marriage is directly related to the effectiveness of communication. Changes in marriage should be communicated openly and understating fostered between the couples. Marriage therapy focuses on communication among couples to resolve issues that occur between them. Communication is a central factor in predetermining the degree happiness and satisfaction in within a family and marriage, improving family and marital communication reduces the conflicts and improves adaptability to change among members.
Family communication is an exchange of information among members of a family. Through effective family communication, members can express their desires, concerns, needs and resolve their challenges. A family that has good communication dimensions is likely to develop high cohesion dimension. The adaptability dimension of such a family is also high, meaning challenges and problems can be effectively resolved. The emotional and social development of children also depends on the effectiveness of family communication. For example, parent-adolescent communication has significant effects on psychosocial status of the adolescent (Ridderinkhof et al., 2017). Open and effective communication establishes and environment of healthy functioning of the family while poor communication limits the ability to effectively respond to changes in the family(Platsidou & Tsirogiannidou, 2016). The level of happiness in a family is directly correlated to communication. Positive communication results to high levels of happiness and satisfaction while restricted communication flow leads to conflicts, misunderstandings and low happiness. Thus, family communication is an essential predicator of the level of satisfaction.
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Emotional intelligence alongside affection and parental warmth are the key aspects of family communication. Emotional intelligence is generally a type of social intelligence which requires observing the emotions of others and oneself. The four categories of emotional intelligence are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relational management (Platsidou & Tsirogiannidou, 2016). Emotional intelligence involves measuring factors such as emotional expression, sympathy and emotional regulation. Within a family setting empathy and expression of emotions are significant in qualifying the degree of family communication. Social, personal and emotional competencies that are related to emotional intelligence determine how members of a family express themselves and cope with challenges. Emotional intelligence is unique due to the fact that its aspects can be improved to desirable levels (Platsidou &Tsirogiannidou, 2016). For family communication to be open and effective factors such as assertiveness, impulse-control, stress- tolerance should be improved. Thus, family communication is dependent on different elements of emotional intelligence such as empathy and appropriate expression of emotions.
Marital communication refers to the mutual understanding and sharing of information among couples. Research demonstrates that married couples experience greater happiness and satisfaction than single people. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that married people have an avenue to express their issues through their partners. Through marital communication couples can get support against stress and daily pressure of careers (Alipour et al., 2020). However, marriage can become a cause of distress and frustration to the couple due to poor communication. Marital disharmony often results from individual stress and poor adjustment to changes in their lives. It has been noted that marital disharmony is one of the most significant reasons why people seek mental health assistance. Key changes in the lives of married couples include pregnancy and the psychological changes involved (Jafari et al., 2021). Couples should be able to effectively communicate these changes and seek the assistance of professional marriage counselors when there is need. Thus, marital communication is an important aspect of predicating harmony in marriage.
Marital burnout leads to emotional divorce and even formal divorce among couples is caused by inadequate communication. Over time, the romance and intimacy between married couples may be affected by marital burnout. Individualism in modern marriages has been a major breakdown of communication among couples (Jafari et al., 2021). Communication therapy involves encouraging the couples to practice empathy and understanding to reduce level of individualism. Proper strategies to improve communication among couples include defining how specific couples listen and speak to each other and express their concerns and gratitude constructively (Damen et al., 2018). Having realistic expectations in marriage also fostered communication among couples. In an era of individualized marriage communication alongside intimacy and passion hold a central role in maintaining commitments in marriage. Thus, marital communication is a critical factor in preventing marital burnout which often leads to emotional divorce and even real divorce.
Thus, improving communication within the family and marriage is a critical predicator factor of happiness and satisfaction among its members. As illustrated, excellent family communication increases harmony and cohesion dimensions. The paper also demonstrates how poor communication is a restrictive factor in helping families resolve their problems. Family members should strive to improve their emotional intelligence so as to enhance better communication. The paper also illustrates why many marriages experience distress due to poor communication among the partners. Changes that occur in marriage such as pregnancy and its psychosocial effects if not properly expressed may lead to frustrations and marital burnouts. Hence, the focus of professional marriage counselors is often on communication as a recognized central factor that affects the satisfaction and happiness of couples.
References
Alipour, Z., Kazemi, A., Kheirabadi, G., & Eslami, A.-A. (2020). Marital communication skills training to promote marital satisfaction and psychological health during pregnancy: a couple focused approach. Reproductive Health , 17 (1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-020-0877-4
Damen, D., van der Wijst, P., van Amelsvoort, M., & Krahmer, E. (2018). Perspective-Taking in Referential Communication: Does Stimulated Attention to Addressees’ Perspective Influence Speakers’ Reference Production? Journal of Psycholinguistic Research , 48 (2), 257–288. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-018-9602-7
Jafari, A., Alami, A., Charoghchian, E., Delshad Noghabi, A., & Nejatian, M. (2021). The impact of effective communication skills training on the status of marital burnout among married women. BMC Women's Health , 21 (1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-021-01372-8
Platsidou, M., & Tsirogiannidou, E. (2016). Enhancement of Emotional Intelligence, Family Communication, and Family Satisfaction Via a Parent Educational Program. Journal of Adult Development , 23 (4), 245–253. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-016-9240-y
Ridderinkhof, A., de Bruin, E. I., Blom, R., & Bögels, S. M. (2017). Mindfulness-Based Program for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Parents: Direct and Long-Term Improvements. Mindfulness , 9 (3), 773–791. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-017-0815-x
