Abstract
This research used Infante’s (1987) conceptualization of trait verbal aggressiveness and argumentativeness to analyze adult males’ perceptions of their fathers’ messages. In the present study, fathers’ self-reports of verbal aggressiveness and argumentativeness were used to predict their adult sons ‘ reports of fathers ‘ sarcasm, criticism, and global verbal aggressiveness. Results of multivariate regression analyses indicated that (1) fathers’ argumentativeness accounted for a significant percentage of variance in the dependent variable set but did not contribute significantly to the univariate equations and (2) fathers’ verbal aggressiveness explained a significant percentage of the multivariance and contributed significantly to each univariate equation. Overall, the predictor set explained 39.32% of the variance in the dependent variable set. As predicted, the preponderance of the effect (30.05%) was due to fathers’ verbal aggressiveness. Implications are discussed.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 407-415 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Communication Quarterly |
Volume | 42 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 1994 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- adult sons
- argumentativeness
- criticism
- fathers
- sarcasm
- verbal aggressiveness
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Communication