A family that texts together, stays together. Or at least it stays in touch better.

Today's families with minor children are much more likely than any other household types to have cell phones and use the Internet, a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project reported recently.

The phone survey of 2,252 adults between Dec. 13 and Jan. 13 also shows families use those technologies to stay in touch with each other throughout the day.

"It used to be in the old Dick and Jane days, husbands went off to work, wives went off to a different job or else stayed home and the kids went off to school," says study co-author Barry Wellman, professor at the University of Toronto. "And not until 5:30, 6 o'clock did they ever connect."

But now husbands e-mail wives. Daughters call moms. Sons e-mail parents.

"There's a new kind of connectedness being built inside of families with these technologies," says Lee Rainie, director of the project.

Other survey findings:

• 89 percent of married (or partnered) parents with children own multiple cell phones.

• 66 percent have high-speed Internet in their homes. (The national average is 52 percent.)

• 70 percent contact each other daily just to say hello, 64 percent to coordinate schedules.