Digital communication between young people and parents: a tale of two studies

Using empirical data from two studies of adolescents and young adults and their parents, we consider in this chapter both subjective experiences and objective observations, to showcase experiences with and patterns of parent–child digital communication. The first study presents survey data collected from a national US sample of parent–adolescent dyads. Analyses reveal that both parents and adolescents report frequent communication in person, via phone calls, and via text, and agree that text-based communications make them feel happy and connected. The second study uses data collected from young adults' smartphones, directly observing their smartphone interactions (i.e., texting, calling) with parents. Findings highlight the idiosyncrasy in their smartphone-based communication, whether they tend to initiate the communication, what communication channel they use, and which parent they communicate with more often. Finally, we consider child agency in parent–child digital communication, discuss the implications for family relationships, limitations in research methods, and consider future research directions.