"I'M JUST TEXTING TO SAY HELLO": EXAMINING HOW PARENTS' ACCESS TO AND USE OF INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES INFLUENCES SATISFACTION AMONG ADULT CHILDREN

Abstract

Advancements in technology have altered how and when communication occurs between individuals in a relationship. Although research has investigated how new information communication technologies (ICTs) affect peer relationships (Yoon, 2003) and parents' communication with their young children (Devitt & Roker, 2009), how information communication technologies influence parent-adult child relationships is less clear. By examining contradictory premises of media multiplexity theory (Haythornthwaite, 2005) and the theory of electronic propinquity (Korzenny, 1978), this study tested whether parental access to ICTs influences communication and relationship satisfaction for adult children and to what extent. This study also examined a new use of ICTs - connectedness - and analyzed how parents' reported connectedness influences parent-adult child relationships. The results indicate that the number of media parents and adult children utilize to maintain their relationship does modestly influence satisfaction. In addition, satisfaction is greater when parents act more in line with a connected mode of communicating and when they are more communicatively competent. These results provide families, therapists, researchers, and educators with a better understanding of how ICTs influence family relationships.