Understanding Young Adults’ Reports of Contact with their Parents in a Digital World: Psychological and Familial Relationship Factors

Abstract

Continued involvement of parents in the lives of young adults is a topic of great interest to both scholars and the lay public. Although young adults' astounding use of cell phones, texting, video chat, and social media in negotiating their social relationships is well documented, few studies have examined the role of different types of communications technology in facilitating young adults' involvement with their parents. Researchers have begun to examine familial and psychological correlates of parental involvement for college students, but existing studies offer mixed results. The present study examined college students' reports of frequency of contact with parents using different types of communications technology and examined familial relationship and individual well-being factors associated with young adults' reports of frequent parental contact. College students (N = 326) completed measures of frequency of contact with mothers and fathers using seven types of communications technology, the quality of family relationships (felt obligation towards parents and family satisfaction) and individual well-being (self-esteem, depressed mood, and general psychological well-being). Phone calls and texting were the two most popular methods of parental contact reported by college students. Level of self-reported contact with parents was not significantly related to participants' reports of self-esteem, depressed mood, or general well-being. Results of multinomial logistic regression analyses indicated that higher levels of felt obligation and family satisfaction meaningfully distinguished between young adults who reported frequent and infrequent parental contact. Our results indicate the importance of understanding young adults' reports of parental contact within the context of ongoing family relationships.

College Student Problematic Internet Use and Digital Communication Medium Used With Parents: Cross-Sectional Study

“…Thus, an additional possibility is that Facebook friendship with parents could decrease risk of PIU in college students by improving parental An important third finding was that participants frequently communicated with parents via text messages and phone calls but seldom via Facebook contacts. This finding is consistent with a previous study showing text messages to be among the most frequently used parent-young adult communication media and suggesting that adopting a new platform for family communication requires the development of technologies that improve how families communicate with each other [33]. It may be that college students and their parents find text messages and phone calls adequate for the nature of their digital communications, if interaction often serves practical purposes such as coordinating plans.…”

Aging Parents’ and Middle-Aged Children’s Evaluations of Parents’ Disability and Life Problems

“…Although little is known about how modes of contact work differently in terms of the correspondence of knowledge on each party's conditions and problems, prior research shows that phone and in-person contact have distinctive features in several ways. For example, phone contact is a common way of connecting with social network members but has inconsistent effects on relationship quality and psychological distress (Fingerman et al 2016;Stein et al 2016;Teo et al 2015). In contrast, frequent in-person contact was consistently associated with lower risk of psychological distress only if this mode of contact involves more positive interactions (Teo et al 2015).…”

Who Helps Build Mexican-Origin Female College Students’ Self-Efficacy? The Role of Important Others in Student Success

“…One important cultural value to consider is familism (e.g., emotional ties to family, respect, and obedience; Sabogal et al, 1987). For example, communication with mothers and fathers was positively related to family obligations (Stein, Osborn, & Greenberg, 2016). In addition, given that Latino cultures emphasize orientations to social relationships (Cooper, 1999), higher levels of Mexican orientation may relate to more frequent communication and greater levels of academic support.…”

“…Higher rates of communication relate to higher quality relationships (Sidelinger, Frisby, & Heisler, 2016; Stein et al, 2016), which can be defined by the amount of support provided (Mikkelson et al, 2011). Increased contact with others may afford more opportunities to communicate academic support.…”