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Did Mobile Phones Increase Adult Children’s Maternal Contact?

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Part of the National Symposium on Family Issues book series (NSFI, volume 9)

Abstract

We describe and extend a research program that addresses a long-standing debate about the trend in intergenerational solidarity. Our research began by asking whether the frequency of grown children’s contact with mothers increased, decreased, or stayed the same for a set of developed countries between 1986 and 2001. The answer led us to an empirical test that discounted the most prominent broad-scope explanation that had been offered for changes in maternal contact, the population composition argument. Several of our findings, however, implicated the diffusion of mobile phones in an increase in remote contacts between mothers and their adult offspring. After testing this neglected hypothesis with cross-national data on the adoption of mobile phones in 24 countries in 2001, we move on to ask whether newer communication technologies (e.g., social media) are registering on frequency of contact with family members in the USA.

Keywords

Mobile phones maternal contact Children’s maternal contact phone Contact with mothers Adults mobile phones Phones changing relationships Mothers adult offspring Contact family members Adoption mobile phones Family mobile phones 
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© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of SociologyUniversity of CaliforniaIrvineUSA
  2. 2.Department of SociologyUniversity at Albany, SUNYAlbanyUSA

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