UC Santa Barbara

Rates of mental health challenges have risen over the past decade in the United States, with young adults (aged 18 to 25) experiencing greater rates of mental health challenges than any other age group. Young adults facing mental health challenges may seek support from their family, as social support is especially beneficial from a close family member (Shor et al., 2013). However, if young adults anticipate a negative reaction upon speaking about mental health with their parent, they may conceal their mental health challenges (Rasmussen et al., 2022). Research has yet to explore the process of family mental health communication from the perspective of both parents and children. Moreover, communication literature often centers the experiences of white Americans despite evidence that communication is “raced” (i.e., one’s culture impacts how they understand and navigate the world; Davis & Cardwell, 2022). The present study recruited 116 racially diverse parent-adult child dyads to take a pre and post survey and have a conversation with their family member on Zoom about their thoughts on mental health in the United States, in their culture, and in their family. I used multiple analyses to explore the process, form, and function of parent-adult child mental health communication across cultural groups. The first analysis used structural equation modeling to test Actor Partner Interdependence Models that considered family members’ extant perceptions of their family’s ability to effectively communicate, their perceptions of support and conflict from their family member during the mental health conversation, their mental health during the conversation, and their satisfaction in the parent-child relationship. Results underscored the importance of one’s extant familial beliefs in this process, with one’s perception of their family’s level of functioning predicting their perceptions of conflict and support during the conversation, their mental health during the conversation, and their satisfaction in the parent-child relationship afterward. Moreover, the results provided evidence that a parent’s perceptions of family functioning and their perceptions of conflict and support from their child may have the ability predict their child’s mental health and satisfaction. The second analysis used an iterative thematic analysis to consider the cultural nuance within parent-child mental health conversations. This analysis illuminated a number of cultural scripts that impacted how families communicated about and understood mental health. Specifically, families often advocated for one of three mindsets: 1. Survival supersedes mental health, 2. The pressure of the collective, and 3. Religion as a solution. The appearance of (dis)confirmation served to reinforce and challenge these belief systems, and a family’s conversation orientation to talking about mental health was one indicator of the amount of confirmation present during a conversation. Taken together, these two analyses illuminate the process of family communication, highlight the role of the individual and the unit, and considered the form and function of family mental health conversations.