Patterns of nonverbal parental communication: A social and situational contexts approach

Nonverbal communication plays an important role in parent–child interactions; however, previous studies have focused on patterns of verbal parental communication. The current study expands the existing research to patterns of nonverbal parental communication. This study presents a social and situational contexts approach to explain various nonverbal parental communication styles. Parent–child interactions (n = 240) in structured joint-game sequences were filmed in families’ homes and analyzed using a mixed multivariant design. Confirmatory factor analysis produced a conceptualization of patterns of nonverbal parental communication: authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive. Multifaceted analyses revealed significant effects of a range of social and situational contexts. The findings delineated the contexts that activated diverse nonverbal parental communication styles. The proposed theoretical and analytical framework contributes to the research of parent–child interactions and establishes a social and situational approach for patterns of nonverbal parental communication.