TEXTING: A STUDY OF RELATIONAL MAINTENANCE, EQUITY, AND CLOSENESS

Abstract Although sending mobile phone text messages, or texting as many people call it, is a very common form of communication, it is still a fairly new technology. Because of this, there is not a great deal of research on it. This study seeks to discover how young adults use texting for relational maintenance as well as study equity, closeness, and to discover sex/gender differences. Data was collected through an online survey. Students were offered extra credit for taking this survey, however some students took the survey with no direct benefit to themselves. Scales were created based on the scales of previous research and modified for texting. Results indicated that texting is used for relational maintenance and there was a significant correlation between using maintenance strategies through texting and closeness. In addition, there were significant correlations between the use of maintenance strategies and equity as well as being underbenefited, however, no correlation was found between the use of relational maintenance strategies and overbenefitedness. Finally, results indicated that sex differences were very minor, the only sex difference was that women use positivity more than men. Gender differences accounted for much more differences in that while femininity was partially associated with the use of relational maintenance strategies, there was a much stronger correlation between the strategies and masculinity. Direction for future research is assessed.