PATTERNS OF COMMUNICATION IN A RACIAL ETHIC CONTEXT - THE CASE OF AN URBAN PUBLIC HIGH-SCHOOL

Data from interviews with 475 parents (and 84 nonparent controls) of s tudents attending a multiracial/ethnic high school in a major southwes tern city were used to test hypotheses about parental school communica tion. Grunig's situational involvement theory of communication was sup ported. Passive and active forms of communication were largely explain ed by the extent to which parents recognized problems at the school, w ere involved with the problems, and felt constrained from acting effec tively in relation to the problems regardless of racial-ethnic backgro und. Still, the major groups differed in anticipated ways concerning a mount of communication, doubtlessly based on historical-cultural exper iences.