Family dialogue and its relation to children's decision making

The current study aims mainly to evaluate the implications of family dialogue on children’s decision making. In this concern, it was hypotheses that knowledge and skills that were transfer through family dialogue may effectively improve the decision making process. To test this assumption, 357 children (11-19 years old) were invited to take part in a descriptive analytical study, while considering the following research tools (1) general data form, (2) family dialogue questionnaire (defining goals - planning - implementation), and (3) decision-making questionnaire (problem identifying - finding alternatives - evaluating the alternatives - implementation and evaluation of the decision). Generally, children’s scores on all axes of study improved with increasing their age. Also, these score improved with increasing their father’s educational level. Although, children’s scores of low-income families were low in "defining goals" axis; yet, their scores were high in "planning" axis comparable with other scores. Consequently, children’s scores (of the least-income families) seemed to be the highest in axes of "finding alternatives” and “evaluating these alternatives”. Gender of participants and the number of children within the family were of no further significant effects on children’s scores on all axis of study (except for “evaluating the alternatives”). It is worthy to mention that children’s scores in the axis of study were correlated significantly and positively with each other; accordingly, we validate of the main assumption of the study. In conclusion, children should positively take part in family dialogue, to develop their experiences and improve their decision making process.