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Abstract
The current media technology landscape presents developmental challenges for adolescent youth and their parents. Adolescence is a time of fundamental neural and social change, resulting in increased need for novelty and autonomy. Digital media caters to adolescents’ inclinations through stimulating leisure content and social utility. As a result, adolescent youth now spend a plurality of their time using digital media devices. However, changes in youth technology behavior, such as the emergence of social media and first-time smartphone ownership, inject novelty into parent-child relationships. At the same time, concerns regarding the negative impacts of media overuse on developmental outcomes contribute to tension between parents and youth over screen time boundaries. Yet, little is known regarding how this tension and novelty impacts relational dynamics in the parent-adolescent system. In the studies presented here, I attempt to address this gap. Study 1 presents a longitudinal study of nearly 12,000 youth testing whether early smartphone ownership contributes to parent-adolescent informant discrepancy regarding youth mental health across early adolescence. Results of this study suggest significant informant discrepancy emerged and continued in years subsequent to youth smartphone adoption. Study 2 presents multilevel model tests of daily associations between 15-year old youth social and entertainment media use and parent-child interaction quality. Results of Study 2 suggest that digital media use was not related parent-child interaction quality at this age. Conceptualizations and findings are interpreted considering a dynamic systems theory framework.