It was not the stories. It was how the family told them together.
Researchers Recorded 58 Families Telling a Story Together. The Ones Who Saw Themselves as a Storytelling Family Were More Satisfied.
A study by Jody Koenig Kellas in Communication Monographs looked at how families build a shared identity through the stories they tell.
Think of the story your family tells at every gathering. **Someone starts it. Someone else corrects the details. Someone finishes the punchline.** Nobody remembers deciding who tells which part.
Communication researcher Jody Koenig Kellas wanted to know whether that back and forth matters. In a study of **58 family triads telling stories together,** she looked at what was said and how it was said, then compared it with how satisfied each family was.
The answer is a quiet one about what a family story is for. It is also one study, from 2005, and we will say what it cannot tell us.
1. The researchers watched families tell a story together
Most research on family stories asks one person to remember. This study looked at the telling itself. **Families told stories jointly,** and the researchers looked at the theme of each story, the way people referred to each other, and behaviors like engagement and taking turns.
One of the things they looked at was **"we-ness" versus separateness.** Did the family talk as a group, or as individuals standing side by side?
The study watched how a family tells a story, not only what the story says.
2. Four things lined up with a more satisfied family
Four features were consistently linked with higher family satisfaction and better family functioning: **how the story was framed, taking one another's perspective, statements about oneself within the family,** and **seeing the family as a "storytelling family."**
That last one is worth sitting with. **Families who thought of themselves as people who tell stories together looked better off on both measures.** The words a family uses about itself were part of the picture.
Telling stories together, and knowing you do, tracked with a happier family.
3. What this does and does not tell us
This study found **links, not proof of cause.** It cannot tell us whether storytelling makes families closer, or whether closer families simply tell stories more easily. It is also one study from 2005, and it did not test recorded stories or phone calls.
What it does suggest is that a family story is more than information. **It is one of the ways a family becomes a family.** If that is true, the stories still sitting in one person's head are worth getting out, while the people who can tell them are here to be heard.
One study, real limits, and a good reason to get the stories told.
Family stories work to construct family identity.Jody Koenig Kellas, Communication Monographs, 2005
What you get with LifeScribe
- 58 family triads told stories together, and researchers studied how they told them.
- Story framing, perspective-taking, statements about oneself within the family, and seeing yourselves as a storytelling family all tracked with family satisfaction.
- The study found associations, not cause, and it did not test recorded stories.
- Built on documented research: Koenig Kellas, Communication Monographs, 2005, volume 72, issue 4, pages 365 to 389.
Start free, with nothing to lose
It is just a phone call, free. Ari calls, asks about your life, and listens, so your stories are kept in your own voice for the people you love.
A family story only gets told while someone is there to tell it. A few minutes on the phone now is easier than wishing you had asked.
Be the one who tells it. Keep it in your voice.
Ari calls and listens, so the stories behind a life are kept in your own voice for the people you love.
Questions grandparents ask us
What did the study actually find?
Families who told stories together in certain ways reported more satisfaction and functioning. Story framing, perspective-taking, statements about oneself within the family, and identifying as a storytelling family were all positive predictors.
How was it done?
The researchers analyzed the content and the process of stories told jointly by 58 family triads, including story themes, how members referred to one another, and behaviors like engagement and turn-taking.
Does it show storytelling makes families happier?
No. It found links between storytelling practices and family satisfaction. It cannot say which causes which.
Does this apply to LifeScribe?
The study looked at families telling stories together, not at any app or at recorded phone calls. Connecting it to keeping stories in your own voice is our reading, not a finding of the study.
Who ran the study?
Jody Koenig Kellas, published in Communication Monographs, 2005, volume 72, issue 4, pages 365 to 389.