Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Sep;37(6):864-874.
doi: 10.1037/fam0001117. Epub 2023 Jun 15.

Dyadic parent-college student digital interaction styles

Michaeline Jensen  1 , Jessica L Navarro  2 , Morgan T Brown  1 , Andrea M Hussong  3
Affiliations

Dyadic parent-college student digital interaction styles

Michaeline Jensen et al. J Fam Psychol. 2023 Sep.

Abstract

Parents and their emerging adult children are highly connected via mobile phones in the digital age. This digital connection has potential implications for the development of autonomy and sustained parent-child relatedness across the course of emerging adulthood. The present study uses the qualitatively coded content of nearly 30,000 U.S. parent-college student text messages, exchanged by 238 college students and their mothers and fathers over the course of 2 weeks, to identify distinct dyadic parent-emerging adult digital interaction styles across dimensions of responsiveness and monitoring. Results reveal that digital interaction styles are largely consistent across age, gender, and parent education as well as reflective (i.e., texting patterns of parents and emerging adults mirror one another), with little evidence of overparenting profiles. Results also show that those college students who are reciprocally disengaged in text messaging with their parents perceive their parents as less digitally supportive. However, no styles were associated with perceived parental pressure to digitally engage. Findings suggest that the mobile phone is likely a valuable tool to maintain connection with few risks for undermining the privacy and autonomy of emerging adults. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Anderson M (2015). Technology device ownership: 2015. Pew Research Center. http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/29/technology-device-ownership-2015
    1. Arnett JJ, & Schwab J (2013). Parents and their grown kids: harmony, support, and (occasional) conflict. Clark Poll of Parents of Emerging Adults. www2.clarku.edu/clark-poll-emerging-adults/pdfs/clark-university-poll-pa...
    1. Asparouhov T, & Muthén B (2014). Auxiliary variables in mixture modeling: three-step approaches using mplus. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 21(3), 329–341. 10.1080/10705511.2014.915181 - DOI
    1. Barry CMN, Padilla-Walker LM, Madsen SD, & Nelson LJ (2008). The impact of maternal relationship quality on emerging adults’ prosocial tendencies: indirect effects via regulation of prosocial values. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 37(5), 581–591. 10.1007/s10964-007-9238-7 - DOI
    1. Baumrind D (1966). Effects of authoritative parental control on child behavior. Child Development, 37(4), 887. 10.2307/1126611 - DOI

LinkOut - more resources