TY - JOUR
T1 - Parents’ use of information and communications technologies for family communication
T2 - differences by age of children
AU - Rudi, Jessie
AU - Dworkin, Jodi
AU - Walker, Susan
AU - Doty, Jennifer
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Taylor & Francis.
PY - 2015/1/26
Y1 - 2015/1/26
N2 - Despite widespread adoption of information and communications technologies (ICTs) by families in the United States, little is known about parents' use of ICTs specifically for family communication. Using a national sample of parents (N = 1322), this study examined parents' use of four widely used ICTs (text message, email, social networking sites, and Skype) to communicate with family including differences in use by child's age. Results show parents' use of various ICTs is dynamic, reflecting developmental differences in the child and relational differences in the family system. Findings revealed that the use of ICTs for parent–child communication increased with child's age, communication with co-parent via text message was more likely among parents of school-aged children, and parents of adolescent children were less likely to use text or email to communicate with non-resident family than parents of school-aged children. Examining how parents are using specific ICTs to communicate with particular family members furthers our understanding of the impact of technology on communication processes occurring within families in today's digital age.
AB - Despite widespread adoption of information and communications technologies (ICTs) by families in the United States, little is known about parents' use of ICTs specifically for family communication. Using a national sample of parents (N = 1322), this study examined parents' use of four widely used ICTs (text message, email, social networking sites, and Skype) to communicate with family including differences in use by child's age. Results show parents' use of various ICTs is dynamic, reflecting developmental differences in the child and relational differences in the family system. Findings revealed that the use of ICTs for parent–child communication increased with child's age, communication with co-parent via text message was more likely among parents of school-aged children, and parents of adolescent children were less likely to use text or email to communicate with non-resident family than parents of school-aged children. Examining how parents are using specific ICTs to communicate with particular family members furthers our understanding of the impact of technology on communication processes occurring within families in today's digital age.
KW - Computer-mediated communication
KW - ICTs
KW - family communication
KW - parenting
KW - social media
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84919842183&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84919842183&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/1369118X.2014.934390
DO - 10.1080/1369118X.2014.934390
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84919842183
SN - 1369-118X
VL - 18
SP - 78
EP - 93
JO - Information Communication and Society
JF - Information Communication and Society
IS - 1
ER -