Research Projects

The IRL investigates adolescent social relationships and mental health in the digital age. Much of our research uses technology as a window into these interactions (e.g., through Ecological Momentary Assessment and passive sensing from smartphones). 

The Tweens on Screens project is currently in the data collection phase. This collaboration with UNCG faculty in Developmental Psychology (Jessica Dollar) and Kinesiology (Laurie Wideman) is studying how kids ages 10–12 use technology in daily life, and how parents guide them. By looking closely at these patterns, we hope to uncover what helps kids thrive, what puts them at risk, and how families can build healthy digital habits together. Our goal is simple: to give parents science-backed tools and tips for raising confident, well-balanced kids in the digital age.
​Recruiting now. Learn more here.   ​

Parenting
​in a Digital Age

Parents and children are more digitally connected than ever before, but there is little research on the ways in which technology may impact the parent-child relationship. 
We have developed a coding system for aspects of parent-child text interactions (i.e. warmth, monitoring, conflict), and applied it to 30,000+ text messages between college students and their parents.  

• ​​2021​ Social Development publication on our method 
• 2021 Social Sciences publication Digital Parenting of Emerging Adults in the 21st Century 
• 2023 Journal of Social and Personal Relationships on Perceived Parental Support for Autonomy. 
• 2023 Journal of Family Psychology pub on Digital Parent-Emerging Adult Interaction Styles.  

Watch this video to hear some top researchers' opinions about what is important in parenting research today: 

RAISE project ​

This project in collaboration with Duke's C-StARR and the  ADAPT LAB ​leverages 2 weeks' worth of ecological momentary assessments (delivered directly to young adolescents' smart phones) to better understand the role of technology in youth development. 

• 2021 Publication on Parent-Adolescent Digital Exchanges
• ​2021 Publication on Technology and the Parent-Adolescent Relationship 
• 2019 Findings show little evidence of longitudinal or daily linkages between adolescent technology use and mental health in Clinical Psychological Science:

Text Message Content as a Window into Youth Alcohol, Substance Use, and Mental Health

 There is a wealth of information in text-based big data, but our ability to understand the contents is limited by existing tools. This projects seek to leverage the information in private messages to better understand young adult risk contexts.  

• Reciprocal Language Style Matching (rLSM) as latent indicator of depression risk. 2023 Journal of Language and Social Psychology 
  
• ​Our LIWC dictionary of "Alcohol Talk" is a quantitative tool that gets at alcohol-related language and is predictive of same day drinking behaviors. 2019  International Journal of Behavioral Development 

Emerging Adulthood Study 

 Young people today are navigating the transition from adolescence to adulthood in a digital age, which presents unique opportunities and potential risks. This project, in collaboration with Melissa Lippold, at UNC Chapel Hill examines how young people and their parents navigate the potentially stressful period. Results have highlighted the prevalence of parental digital location Tracking study of emerging adult locations, the role of daily stress in substance use, and how parents and emerging adult children engage in dyadic coping with stress.  

Coding Culture

We have recently completed a mixed-methods project, consisting of focus groups, text message analysis, and quantitative survey data, which explores the ways in which families use modern communication technologies to maintain ties to culture and engage in Racial/Ethnic Socialization (RES). 

• 2025 Publication in Journal of Adolescent Research on Digital Racial-Ethnic Socialization between African American American Emerging Adults and their Caregivers

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