Motives for Communicating with Family and Friends: A Chinese Study

• Published in: The Howard journal of communications 1998-04, Vol.9 (2), p.109-123
• Main Authors: Anderson, Carolyn M, Martin, Matthew M, Zhong, Mei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chinese Communication Chinese Motives Chinese Relationships Intracultural Communication Motives; College Students; Interpersonal Communication; Interpersonal Relationship Satisfaction; Motivation; Parent Child Relations; Peer Relations; Peoples Republic of China; Universities
• ISSN: 1064-6175; 1096-4649
• DOI: 10.1080/106461798247041

Chinese students and staff (N= 130) from a university in Beijing, China, completed scales and open-ended questions about motives for communicating and satisfaction with their communication with mothers, fathers, and friends. In Study 1, several of R. B. Rubin, E. M. Perse, and C. A. Barbato's (1988) motives for communicating with fathers and mothers were negatively correlated with satisfaction with the communication. In both relationships, relaxation was moderately related, whereas inclusion, pleasure, and control were slightly related. The affection motive was not a reason given for communicating with fathers. Caution is noted in interpreting results due to subscale reliabilities. Post hoc analyses of the Interpersonal Communication Motives Scale for mothers and fathers found no clean factor solutions resembling R. B. Rubin et al.'s 6 factors. In Study 2, a content analysis found that people from China more frequently communicate with best friends from needs for inclusion, because of similarity in personality and interests, expressiveness in communicating feelings, pleasure, and affection. Implications for future research are discussed in light of inductive and deductive approaches to motives research in China.