So, there’s a lot of crazy stuff going on with this finding. The first is that the definition of “hyper-texting” is sending more than 120 texts a day, which is an absurd amount of texting for a teen to do! Second, for some reason, there’s a link between hyper-texting and having sex and doing drugs at an early age.
The link seems to be connected to how much control parents exercise over their kids. The less control, the more susceptible kids are to peer pressure.
“If parents are monitoring their kids’ texting and social networking, they’re probably monitoring other activities as well,” said Dr. Scott Frank, an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics.
The study also found that hyper-texting was more common among girls, minorities, kids whose parents have less education and students from a single-mother household.
Now, if you have kids, you shouldn’t automatically take away your kid’s cell phone, but you should think about monitoring him/her a little more closely and regularly checking in to make sure they have healthy and safe views about drugs and sex.
[Image via AP Images.]