Investigation into the Relationship between Smart Phones, Family Communication, and Attachment

In previous scholarly research, the relationship between family connectedness and mobile phone usage has mixed results, with some research touting phones as a relationship enhancer and other admonishing its role in the interpersonal divide between children and their parents. The research then branched off into examining whether or not phone use can be deemed “problematic” as opposed to phone use in other unique communication contexts. This thesis aims to examine if there was a relationship between Conversation Orientation, Mobile Phone Usage, and Attachment in early adolescent children. It was hypothesized that conversation orientation would negatively predict mobile phone use and that mobile phone use would negatively predict attachment. A survey design was employed utilizing a convenience sample of university undergraduate students (N=196). They were asked to keep their early adolescent experiences in mind while they completed the survey. Afterwards, data analysis was conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics 26. Results indicated that there was no significant relationship between conversation orientation and mobile phone usage, as well as no significant relationship between mobile phone use and attachment despite individuals with higher attachment scores registering higher phone use. Further research should work to define a phone use scale that is divorced from the realm of problematic phone use. Alternatively, there may be other factors at play in this relationship that could be introduced into future analysis. Utilizing early adolescents as a sample would provide a more detailed platform for analysis and generating conclusive results.