Washington D.C., Aug 10: Texting- an act of writing and sending messages electronically, can both help and hinder our relationships. According to a research on texting and sexting presented at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association, it was found whether it is sexting or breaking up, texting can either bring us close or drive us apart. Researchers surveyed 205 adults between the ages of 18 and 29 who were in romantic relationships. The questions focused on emotional security, texting habits and relationship satisfaction. Results showed that people who described their partner as having a similar texting style to themselves reported greater relationship satisfaction.

In other words, couples who were more in sync with the kind of texts they send to each other were more satisfied with their partner, regardless of whether the messages they sent were love notes or complaints about an issue in the relationship. Leora Trub, who presented the findings, said, "How couples texted was more important to the satisfaction of the relationship than how frequently they texted." A second study, also presented by Trub, found that texting can bring people closer to others or create distance, depending on the motivations underlying its use.

She added, "We text to check in with our spouse during the work day and to stay connected with friends far away, but we also text to avoid dealing with relatives at the family party and to break up with someone." The researchers also found that a greater percentage of people in same-sex relationships were frequent or hyper sexters. The full findings are present in American Psychological Association's 126th Annual Convention.