How Adolescents Use Text Messaging Through their High School Years

Ehrenreich, Samuel E.; Beron, Kurt J.; Burnell, Kaitlyn; Meter, Diana Jill; Underwood, Marion K.

doi:10.1111/jora.12541

Cited by 48 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…These researchers collected all text messages exchanged (with all relationship partners, including parents) by about 200 adolescents over their entire high school careers (2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012). The researchers used a qualitative hand-coding approach to capture antisocial content (e.g., discussions about drugs, aggression, or rule-breaking), negative talk (e.g., negative social interactions, social exclusion, negative appraisals of self or others, expression of negative affect, and sarcasm), positive talk (e.g., discussion of positive events or feelings, positive assessment of self or others), and sexual content (e.g., references to past, present, or future sexual behavior) in text messages taken from 4 days per year (across 4 years) for each adolescent (interrater reliabilities (kappa) ranged from 0.65 to 0.82 across codes; Ehrenreich et al 2020). Results indicate that teens text far less with parents than with peers; the average participant exchanged 27.58 (SD = 27.73) text messages with parents across 4 days in the 12th grade (which comprise about 6.45% of all texts exchanged; SD = 8.65).…”

Section: Text Messaging and Digital Analogues To Autonomy And Relatedness In Emerging Adulthoodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Parenting of Emerging Adults in the 21st Century

2021

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In emerging adulthood, when many young people are away from their families for the first time, mobile phones become an important conduit for maintaining relationships with parents. Yet, objective assessment of the content and frequency of text messaging between emerging adults and their parents is lacking in much of the research to date. We collected two weeks of text messages exchanged between U.S. college students (N = 238) and their parents, which yielded nearly 30,000 parent-emerging adult text messages. We coded these text message exchanges for traditional features of parent-emerging adult communication indexing positive connection, monitoring and disclosures. Emerging adults texted more with mothers than with fathers and many messages constitute parental check-ins and emerging adult sharing regarding youth behavior and well-being. Findings highlight that both the frequency and content of parent-emerging adult text messages can be linked with positive (perceived text message support) and negative (perceived digital pressure) aspects of the parent-emerging adult relationship. The content of parent-emerging adult text messages offers a valuable, objective window into the nature of the parent-emerging adult relationships in the digital age of the 21st century.

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Section: Text Messaging and Digital Analogues To Autonomy And Relatedness In Emerging Adulthoodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Parenting of Emerging Adults in the 21st Century

2021

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“…A third limitation is that our reasons for texting were global and did not differentiate between texting with friends, romantic partners, parents, or other family members. Adolescents tend to text about negative emotions and events more frequently with their peers than with their parents (Ehrenreich et al, 2020); thus, future studies may consider whether motives for texting vary depending on the texting partner. Fourth, our questions focused on motivations for texting and did not ask questions about reasons for replying to texts (e.g., respond to friend's negative emotions or need for help).…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to the uses and gratifications theory, individuals use media in order to fulfill certain needs (Rubin, 2009). For young adults and adolescents, texting can be used for a variety of purposes such as discussing positive and negative events, showing affection, relaxing, coordinating offline activities, and discussing schoolwork (Jin and Park, 2010;Lenhart et al, 2010;Grellhesl and Punyanunt-Carter, 2012;Ehrenreich et al, 2020). It is possible that there are different patterns of texting use.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Motives for Texting During Early Adolescence

2021

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Research on adolescent texting has largely focused on whether the frequency of texting is associated with well-being. Whether the motives for texting is associated with well-being is not well known. We surveyed 130 young adolescents (Mage = 12.41 years) and identified user-clusters based on their motives for texting. We then examined whether the clusters were associated with phone habits that may affect health and learning (e.g., phone placement when sleeping). Participants were asked how often they texted someone when they were excited, proud, frustrated, angry, anxious, sad, needed help with homework, wanted to make plans, and needed advice [0 (never) to 4 (always)]. Using k-means clustering, we identified six clusters. On one end of the continuum were Frequent-Texters and Positive-Frequent-Texters. Frequent-Texters texted often for all purposes and Positive-Frequent-Texters frequently texted for all purposes except expressing negative emotions. On the other end of the continuum were Selective-Texters and Positive-Selective-Texters. Selective-Texters rarely texted for any reason and Positive-Selective-Texters rarely texted except for expressing positive emotions. In between were the Moderate-Texters and the Positive-Practical-Moderate-Texters. Moderate-Texters texted less frequently than Frequent-Texters and more frequently than Selective-Texters for all purposes. Positive-Practical-Moderate-Texters texted more frequently than Moderate-Texters for positive emotions and for practical reasons. Clusters differed by gender, texting experience, and Fear of Missing Out (FOMO). Frequent-Texters started texting at a marginally younger age than Selective-Texters, had high FOMO scores, and were all girls. Clusters also differed in their phone habits. For instance, when sleeping, Frequent-Texters were more likely than other groups to have their phones on or next to the bed. When doing homework, Selective-Texters were less likely to keep their phones on or near them. Interestingly, Positive-Frequent-Texters were more likely to have the ringer on or to have their phone on vibrate while doing homework, but not more likely to keep their phones nearby. Given that texting is a common communication method, it is important to understand the heterogeneity of reasons why youth text and how those reasons relate to phone habits.

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“…Second, adolescents in this study may have experienced more opportunities for prosocial behavior as a result of the pandemic, such as helping, caring for, and comforting friends and family members; prosocial behavior is associated with positive adjustment [ 46 ]. Last, adolescents have a demonstrated ability to use technology to navigate developmental and mental health challenges; in our study, adolescents may have found entertainment, support, and distraction through digital interaction, such that any effects of COVID-19 on mental health were mitigated [ 47 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Depression, Anxiety, and Daily Activity Among Adolescents Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-sectional Survey Study

Jolliff¹,

Zhao²,

Eickhoff³

et al. 2021

JMIR Form Res

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Background The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant changes to adolescents’ daily lives and, potentially, to their mental health. The pandemic has also disproportionately affected historically marginalized and at-risk communities, including people of color, socioeconomically disadvantaged people, people identifying as female, and youth. Objective This study aimed to understand differences in depression and anxiety among 2 groups of adolescents in the United States before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to examine demographic and daily activity variables associated with depression and anxiety. Methods Online surveys were distributed in 2019 and 2020. Demographic questions were asked at the time of enrollment, and included participants’ age, gender, race and ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (SES). The 8-item Patient Health Questionnaire was used to assess symptoms of depression, and the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale was used to assess symptoms of anxiety. A total of 4 pandemic-specific daily activity questions were asked only of the pandemic group. Analyses of covariance compared depression and anxiety between prepandemic and pandemic groups. Demographic and lifestyle variables were included as covariates. Results The sample comprised a total of 234 adolescents, with 100 participants in the prepandemic group and 134 participants in the pandemic group. Within the pandemic group, 94% (n=126) of adolescents reported being out of school due to the pandemic, and another 85.8% (n=115) and 57.1% (n=76) were prevented from extracurricular activities and exercise, respectively. Higher depression was seen in the pandemic group, with a least-squares adjusted mean of 7.62 (SD 1.36) compared to 6.28 (SD 1.42) in the prepandemic group, although the difference was not significant (P=.08). There was no significant difference in anxiety scores between the 2 groups (least-squares adjusted means 5.52, SD 1.30 vs 5.01, SD 1.36; P=.48). Within the pandemic group, lower SES was predictive of anxiety, such that those in the pandemic group of lower SES were more anxious than their higher-SES peers (least-squares adjusted means 11.17, SD 2.34 vs 8.66, SD 2.16; P=.02). Within the pandemic group, being out of work or school and not partaking in extracurricular activities or exercise due to the pandemic were not associated with higher depression or anxiety scores. Conclusions In this study, neither being in the pandemic group nor experiencing changes in daily activity due to the pandemic was associated with higher depression or anxiety. However, we found that adolescents from lower SES backgrounds experienced significantly more anxiety during the pandemic than their more privileged peers. Both instrumental and mental health interventions for low-income adolescents are imperative.

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How Adolescents Use Text Messaging Through their High School Years

Cited by 48 publications

References 64 publications

Digital Parenting of Emerging Adults in the 21st Century

Digital Parenting of Emerging Adults in the 21st Century

Motives for Texting During Early Adolescence

Depression, Anxiety, and Daily Activity Among Adolescents Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-sectional Survey Study

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