Social networking with parents can strengthen parent-child relationships, study says

You would think adolescents would be too embarrassed or weirded out seeing Mom and Dad "friend" them on Facebook. But believe it or not, adolescents are more likely to be "friends" with their parents on social networking sites, and the communication between the parent and the child is positive.

Source: http://wholeheartedparenting.blogspot.com/

A study conducted at the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University called, "A Friend Request from Dear Old Dad: Associations Between Parent–Child Social Networking and Adolescent Outcomes," found that social networking with parents can strengthen parent-child relationships.

Of course there are adolescents that feel like their parents would be invading their privacy if they're friends with them on social networking sites. These are the young people that believe that social media sites are better for interacting with friends rather than with parents, the study says.

Dr. Kevin Roy, a professor in the Family Science Department in the School of Public Health at the University of Maryland, says that interactions between parent and child on social networks could cause both positive and negative outcomes.

A brief overview of the BYU study.

The goal of this 2014 study was to examine parent-child relationships and the connections and outcomes for adolescents. The participants, 491 adolescents and their parents from the United States, were randomly selected from a national database.

They had to complete questionnaires on their social networking use, feelings of connections, and behavioral outcomes, which included internalizing and delinquency, relational aggression, and prosocial behavior.

Some examples of sample items from the survey:

• "How much time do you spend on social networking sites in a typical day?"
• "How often do you use social networking sites (such as Facebook) to connect with your parent/child?"
• "My parent and I have warm and loving times together."
• "My parents is responsive to my feelings and needs."
• "I am unhappy, sad, or depressed."
• "I lie or cheat."
• "When I have been angry at someone, I have tried to damage that person's reputation by gossiping about them."
• "I really enjoy doing small favors for my family."

All survey items were answered on a point-based scale (e.g., 1="not true" to 5="almost always true").

There's a large range of social networking use between parents and their children.

The researchers of the study revealed that "about half of the adolescents who are on social networking sites do connect with their parents over such sites." However, the frequency of parents and children connecting daily on social media is low -- less than 20 percent reported daily interactions with their parents.

Despite the rare daily interactions on these sites with Mom and Dad, there is a large proportion of adolescents that are still "friends" with their parents on social networking sites.

A small survey was sent out in two University of Maryland journalism classes in regards to social networking with parents. This is the question that these college students responded to:

"Of the following social networks, check all of which you are a "friend" or follower of at least one parent."

The answer choices were Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Not a friend (follower of a parent on any of these).

There were at total of 77 response to the survey question between the two classes. The results showed that 18 of the 77 students were not a "friend" or follower of a parent on any of the social networks that were listed.

There were 56 people who were "friends" with a parent on Facebook, 18 were following a parent on Twitter, 27 were following a parent on Instagram, and 14 were following a parent on Snapchat.

The results of this smaller survey conducted at the University of Maryland links with what was found in the BYU study. Both studies show that there is a large number of teens who are social networking with their parents.

Adolescents that are social networking with their parents can strengthen parent-child relationships.

According to the BYU study, "media use can become part of family interactions, and can strengthen family bonds in a variety of contexts." University of Maryland's Dr. Kevin Roy discusses that communication via social media is similar to any other form of communication.

Parents and children can use social networks for increased communication as well as in many other different ways, such as playing games, the study says.

A way in which parents and their children can show support to each other on social networks is by making positive comments on statuses and pictures. The researchers say that this can increase feelings of connection.

Parents can also understand what's going on in their child's life better if they are "friends" with each other on social media. This would allow parents to be aware of who their child is hanging out with and what their personal preferences are.

The increased communication and interaction between parents and their children on social networks can result in "heightened feelings of connectivity," the study says.

As a result, this can be "associated with a number of positive outcomes for adolescents, such as higher prosocial behavior toward family and diminished relational aggression and internalizing problems."

Children not social networking with a parent can increase delinquency, increase relational aggression, and decrease parent-child connection.

The researchers mention that it's possible that adolescents are interacting on social networking sites with peers that their parents may not approve of. The researchers also bring up the point that these teens may use social media "as a vehicle of harm." 

Some examples of adolescents causing harm on social networks that were given in the study include "sending mean messages, 'de-friending' others, posting unflattering pictures, or creating online groups for the purpose of excluding or humiliating others." 

Parents, who are "friends" with their children on social networking sites, would be more aware of their interactions on these sites, and therefore, could monitor and help prevent certain issues from occurring.

Final thoughts from the BYU study: Social networking could be a "useful tool" for parents in connecting with their children.

The researchers' suggestion is for parents to not "friend" their child right away, but instead sit down and discuss with them the possibility of social networking together.

Some adolescents may get embarrassed or weirded out if parents are always commenting on statuses and pictures, or controlling their kids' interactions.

For that reason, the researchers "suspect that careful and respectful use of social networking sites with parents may be good for adolescents."

College students aren't as "techie" as we think because they prefer simplicity

College students spend a lot of their time on the Web, but they aren't the "technology wizards" we think they might be.

A study conducted by Nielson Norman Group on college students revealed some intriguing results about students' Internet use. It showed that students rather use websites that have a "clean and simple" look, instead of a "flashy and busy" look. They also "prefer websites that are easy to scan and don't intimidate them with a wall of gray text."

Despite being more comfortable using new technology than most older users, college students tended to "avoid Web elements that they perceive[d] as 'unknown' for fear of wasting time." Students are obviously very busy and as a result want to acquire information as quickly as possible. If they find something on a site that is difficult or confusing, they'll lose patience and leave the site rather than sit there and figure out the issue.

The article termed college students as "search dominant." This means that students don't like to be swarmed by visuals and audio and motion clips. They "gravitate toward one very plain user interface: the search engine." One user was quoted saying that websites should "stick to simplicity in design, but not be old-fashioned. Clear menus, not too many flashy or moving things because it can be quite confusing."

College students don't require the sites they use to entertain them. These students are "goal-oriented" people, therefore, the websites they use are sites "that [help] them quickly accomplish their goals." These students also don't always trust the information they read on the first website they look at. As a matter of fact, "many students were skeptical or turned off by websites that lacked depth and detail, or didn't answer their questions."

We know that college students are intelligent because, well, they're in college. They have strong reading skills and are more than apt to reading advanced writing. With this all being said, students don't want to read a large amount of text. They prefer to scan a page to retrieve information instead of reading it all word for word. As previously stated, college students are busy people and want to quickly accomplish their goals.

International students were also tested in this study. And believe it or not, there was no differences between the U.S. students and the foreign-born students. Both groups of students were the same in regards to their usage of online websites.

The participants involved in the study were college students, both undergraduate and graduate students, ranging in age from 18-24. Forty-three students in four countries (Australia, Germany, United Kingdom, and the United States) participated.

One method used for testing was that the students had to complete tasks in a one-on-one session -- one person being the participant and the other being the observer. For some of those tasks, the students could use any website(s), and for the others, they had to use a predetermined site. Another method used was that the students' Internet use was recorded at home for two days using screen-recording software.

College students aren't as "techie" as we thought

College students spend a lot of their time on the Web, but they aren't the "technology wizards" we think they might be.

A study conducted by Nielson Norman Group on college students revealed some intriguing results about students' Internet use. It showed that students rather use websites that have a "clean and simple" look, instead of a "flashy and busy" look. They also "prefer websites that are easy to scan and don't intimidate them with a wall of gray text."

Despite being more comfortable using new technology than most older users, college students tended to "avoid Web elements that they perceive[d] as 'unknown' for fear of wasting time." Students are obviously very busy and as a result want to acquire information as quickly as possible. If they find something on a site that is difficult or confusing, they'll lose patience and leave the site rather than sit there and figure out the issue.

The article termed college students as "search dominant." This means that students don't like to be swarmed by visuals and audio and motion clips. They "gravitate toward one very plain user interface: the search engine." One user was quoted saying that websites should "stick to simplicity in design, but not be old-fashioned. Clear menus, not too many flashy or moving things because it can be quite confusing."

College students don't require the sites they use to entertain them. These students are "goal-oriented" people, therefore, the websites they use are sites "that [help] them quickly accomplish their goals." These students also don't always trust the information they read on the first website they look at. As a matter of fact, "many students were skeptical or turned off by websites that lacked depth and detail, or didn't answer their questions."

We know that college students are intelligent because, well, they're in college. They have strong reading skills and are more than apt to reading advanced writing. With this all being said, students don't want to read a large amount of text. They prefer to scan a page to retrieve information instead of reading it all word for word. As previously stated, college students are busy people and want to quickly accomplish their goals.

International students were also tested in this study. And believe it or not, there was no differences between the U.S. students and the foreign-born students. Both groups of students were the same in regards to their usage of online websites.

The participants involved in the study were college students, both undergraduate and graduate students, ranging in age from 18-24. Forty-three students in four countries (Australia, Germany, United Kingdom, and the United States) participated.

One method used for testing was that the students had to complete tasks in a one-on-one session -- one person being the participant and the other being the observer. For some of those tasks, the students could use any website(s), and for the others, they had to use a predetermined site. Another method used was that the students' Internet use was recorded at home for two days using screen-recording software.