Communicative styles and adaptations in physician-parent consultations

https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(92)90289-3Get rights and content

Abstract

This investigation compares the degree to which personal and interactive factors respectively account for variation in patterns of physician-parent communicative exchange. The analysis of audiorecordings of 115 pediatric consultations revealed several notable findings: (a) individual physicians differed in the degree to which each provided information, issued directives, exhibited positive socioemotional behavior, and engaged in partnership-building, (b) parents who asked more questions and expressed more negative affect (e.g. concerns, frustrations) received more information and directives from physicians, (c) parents who were more affectively expressive elicited a greater number of positive socioemotional comments from doctors, and (d) parents' question-asking and opinion-giving were related to the parents' level of education and the degree to which physicians' engaged in partnership-building. The results of this study suggest that, as are other forms of interpersonal communication, medical consultations are processes of personal and mutual influence that unfold according to the characteristics of the individuals and to interactive processes related to how interactants adapt their communication to one another.

References (43)

  • H. Waitzkin

    Information giving in medical care

    J. Hlth soc. Behav.

    (1985)
  • M. Stewart

    Patient characteristics which are related to doctor-patient interaction

    Family Practice

    (1983)
  • R.H. Pantell et al.

    Physician communication with children and parents

    Pediatrics

    (1982)
  • R.L. Street

    Accommodation in medical consultations

  • D. Pendleton et al.

    Doctor-patient communication: A review

  • J.E. Orth et al.

    Patient exposition and provider explanation in routine interviews and hypertensive patients' blood pressure control

    Hlth. Psychol.

    (1987)
  • R.L. Street et al.

    Patients' characteristics affecting physician-patient nonverbal communication

    Human Commun. Res.

    (1988)
  • C.K. Smith et al.

    Sequential nonverbal behavior in the physician-patient interview

    J. Family Practice

    (1984)
  • M.L. Patterson

    Nonverbal Behavior: A Functional Perspective

    (1983)
  • J.N. Cappella et al.

    A functional approach to the study of communicative behaviour

  • B.M. Korsch et al.

    Gaps in doctor-patient communication: doctor-patient interaction and patient satisfaction

    Pediatrics

    (1968)
  • Cited by (170)

    • Exploration of Parent–Provider Communication During Clinic Visits for Children With Chronic Conditions

      2018, Journal of Pediatric Health Care
      Citation Excerpt :

      To relate content elements such as information about the treatment to the parent, the provider would be expected to predominantly use explaining communication behaviors, a finding borne out in this study. Similarly, Street (1992) found a high percentage of information-giving MD utterances to parents during clinic visits, and Lawson and Lawson (2002) found that MDs and NPs alike used an informational communication style with patients in the outpatient clinic setting. Parents given explanations for novel treatment for their child with a chronic condition, such as the use of a biologic, would be expected to use communication behaviors such as listening to those explanations, asking questions, and verbalizing understanding.

    • Professional Interpreter Use and Discharge Communication in the Pediatric Emergency Department

      2018, Academic Pediatrics
      Citation Excerpt :

      Second, providers may provide less information when they are aware of a language barrier but are not using interpretation, in an effort to keep vocabulary and concepts simple. Finally, there is excellent research suggesting that much of the variability in how providers communicate, including how much information they provide and how supportive they are, is owing to how patients and families communicate, including how many questions they ask and what concerns they express.23–26 Thus, it is unsurprising that in the absence of interpretation, members of an LEP family may be unable to express themselves in a way that prompts high-quality communication from a provider.

    • Physicians’ and Patients’ Interruptions in Clinical Practice: A Quantitative Analysis

      2022, Annals of Family Medicine
      Citation Excerpt :

      Our study is the first to explore interruption behavior in 2 important consultation phases. Physicians and patients use interruptions for various purposes, which reflect the particular tasks and opportunities for each.21,22,47–49 Our findings showed that physicians were less likely than patients to intrusively interrupt the other in the phase of problem presentation, which indicates that the physicians in our study acknowledged the control of the patient in this initial and critical phase.

    • Patient-Provider Communication and Interactions

      2023, Chronic Illness Care: Principles and Practice, Second Edition
    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text