Research Projects

The IRL investigates social relationships and mental health in adolescence and young adulthood. We use technology as a window into these interactions.  

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.  
​Analyses ongoing

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

Machine Learning
​& Text Messages 

This collaboration, funded by SRCD and the Jacobs foundation, applies machine learning algorithms to text message communications.  This project brings together researchers from UT Dallas, Purdue, Chapman, Utah State, University of Nevada Reno, UNC Chapel Hill, and UNC Greensboro to better understand social development in adolescence and young adulthood.  
​Analyses ongoing 

Watch this video for a brief introduction to the project: 

RAISE project ​

This project in collaboration with 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. 
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.  ​Our LIWC dictionary of "Alcohol Talk" is a newly-developed quantitative tool that gets at alcohol-related language and is predictive of same day drinking behaviors.  
Published 2019 International Journal of Behavioral Development 

Coding Culture
​

We are developing a coding system for Racial/Ethnic Socialization (RES) messages (preparation for bias, cultural socialization, promotion of mistrust, egalitarian messages) in parent-child text communications.  Coding system will tap the bi-directional nature of RES messages by coding youth disclosures of culture-related stressors and uplifts. 
Data Collection In Progress 

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