Despite the time spent with smartphones and social media, young people today are just as socially skilled as those from the previous generation, a new study suggests.

Researchers compared teacher and parent evaluations of children who started kindergarten in 1998 — six years before Facebook launched — with those who began school in 2010, when the first iPad debuted.

Results showed both groups of kids were rated similarly on interpersonal skills such as the ability to form and maintain friendships and get along with people who are different. They were also rated similarly on self-control, such as the ability to regulate their temper.

In other words, the kids are still all right, said Douglas Downey, lead author of the study and professor of sociology at The Ohio State University.

«In virtually every comparison we made, either social skills stayed the same or actually went up modestly for the children born later,» Downey said.

«There’s very little evidence that screen exposure was problematic for the growth of social skills.»

Downey conducted the study with Benjamin Gibbs, associate professor of sociology at Brigham Young University. The study was just published online in the American Journal of Sociology.

Story Source: Materials provided by Ohio State University. Original written by Jeff Grabmeier. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.