Technology as a Parenting Tool

This study uses a qualitative approach to better understand how parents are using interactive technology to parent their early adolescents (ages 12 to 15). Where interactive technology use is becoming more common at younger ages, and interactive technology is a preferred communication method for teens, this is an important topic to understand in more depth. Ten dyads (parent and a teen between the ages of 12 and 15) will be recruited using a variation on snowball sampling. Participants will fill out a brief (5 to 10 minute) questionnaire gathering demographic data and basic information about personal interactive technology use. Participants will complete a phone interview (20 to 40 minutes) answering questions about parenting and interactive technology use. Demographic and quantitative data gathered on from the questionnaire will be analyzed using descriptive statistics. Qualitative data received from phone interviews will be analyzed using qualitative dyadic analysis techniques (Eisikovits & Koren, 2010)