Table 3.

Youth responses to question 3 about reasons for getting their first phone (N=459).

Subtheme by theme				Respondents, n (%)	Representative quote
Overall theme: functionality
	Subtheme: necessity		325 (71.1)		N/Aa
		Contacting parents	162 (35.4)		“So my parents could communicate with me” (Fb; age 14 y, got phone at 12 y)
		Safety	83 (18.2)		“because i got lost once, and my parents wanted me to have one for security purposes” (F; age 16 y, got phone at 8.5 y)
		Afterschool activities	68 (14.9)		“Because I had activities after school and needed a phone to call my parents to pick me up afterwards” (F; age 24 y, got phone at 13 y)
	Subtheme: maturity as a requirement		59 (12.9)		N/A
		Education	33 (7.2)		“At that point I was going into middle school and I had more need to be able to contact my parents” (Mc; age 18 y, got phone at 13 y)
		Independence	16 (3.5)		“…I [sic] was going to middle school, and getting more independent, so i needed communication. It was also normal for most middle schoolers to have phones.” (F; age 16 y, got phone at 11 y)
		Socialization	59 (12.9)		“I wanted to more easily communicate with my friends…” (M; age 24 y, got phone at 14 y)
Overall theme: environmental context				31 (6.8)	“Because everyone else had one.” (No gender indicated; age 16 y, got phone at 9.5 y)

^aN/A: not applicable.

^bF: female.

^cM: male.