No Crossed Wires: Cell Phone Communication in Parent-Adolescent Relationships

Parents' ability to parent their adolescents may be extended by using a cell phone. At the same time, using the cell phone, adolescents can seek out parental interaction. The outcomes of parent-adolescent interactions via cell phone are not well understood. In this study, 196 parent-adolescent dyads (13 percent father-son, 11 percent father-daughter, 30 percent mother-son, and 46 percent mother-daughter) completed questionnaires about their cell phone calls to one another, parenting processes, self-esteem, and self-efficacy. Parents reported greater communication and closeness when adolescents initiated calls seeking social support. Adolescents reported greater conflict when parents called for monitoring activity, for tracking schoolwork, and when upset. Calls to ask and confer by adolescents and to track school work positively related, but parental calls when upset negatively related to parental self-esteem. Adolescent self-esteem is predicted by calls seeking support and negatively associated with parents calling when upset.

[1]  P. Amato,et al.  Parental self-esteem and behavior problems in children: Similarities between mothers and fathers , 1993 .

[2]  D. J. Lee.  Society and the Adolescent Self-Image , 1969 .

[3]  M. Nair.  Parenting adolescents. , 2004, Indian Pediatrics.

[4]  Richard W. Robins,et al.  Low Self-Esteem Is Related to Aggression, Antisocial Behavior, and Delinquency , 2005, Psychological science.

[5]  Rivka Ribak,et al.  Remote control, umbilical cord and beyond: the mobile phone as a transitional object. , 2009, The British journal of developmental psychology.

[6]  Richard Ling,et al.  Hyper-coordination via mobile phones in Norway , 2002 .

[7]  A. Vazsonyi,et al.  Exotic Enterprise No More? Adolescent Reports of Family and Parenting Processes From Youth in Four Countries , 2003 .

[8]  Rich Ling.  CHILDREN, YOUTH, AND MOBILE COMMUNICATION , 2007 .

[9]  Ran Wei,et al.  Staying connected while on the move , 2006, New Media Soc..

[10]  Judy A Bean,et al.  Self-esteem in adolescent females. , 2006, The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine.

[11]  S. Small.  Parental Self-Esteem and Its Relationship to Childrearing Practices, Parent-Adolescent Interaction, and Adolescent Behavior. , 1988 .

[12]  Kerry Devitt,et al.  The Role of Mobile Phones in Family Communication , 2009 .

[13]  Alex S. Taylor,et al.  The Gift of the Gab?: A Design Oriented Sociology of Young People's Use of Mobiles , 2003, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).

[14]  N. Darling,et al.  Predictors of Adolescents’ Disclosure to Parents and Perceived Parental Knowledge: Between- and Within-Person Differences , 2006 .

[15]  M. Rosenberg.  Society and the adolescent self-image , 1966 .

[16]  Richard G. Lomax,et al.  Parental Efficacy: Predictor of Parenting Behavior and Adolescent Outcomes , 2002 .

[17]  Robert S. Weisskirch.  Parenting by Cell Phone: Parental Monitoring of Adolescents and Family Relations , 2009, Journal of youth and adolescence.

[18]  R. Forehand,et al.  A transactional model of adolescent self-esteem , 1998 .