Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Phone Home: Parent-Child Support In College Students' Social Interaction, Ruth L. Markham, Cindy Cheung Siu, Nicole Tiffan, Samantha Kohli, Jean-Luc Schieferstein

The Research and Scholarship Symposium (2013-2019)

In this qualitative research study we explored college students’ understanding and appreciation of parental support in social interaction. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 college students who were found to have a close relationship with their parents from a previous study (relative to their peers). The first theme indicated that the majority of these students, who already have close relationships with their parents, benefitted from verbal communication, including phone call and texting with their parents. Texting enables the students and parents to remain in constant contact with each other throughout the day. Parents are able to encourage their children, and …