The effects of maternal smartphone use on mother-child interaction

Developing language in a digital world

Young children's screen time is increasing, raising concerns about its negative impact on language development, particularly vocabulary. However, digital media is used in a variety of ways, which likely differentially impact language development. Instead of asking 'how much' screen time, the focus should be on how digital media is used.

Mother Phubbing and Child Problematic Media Use: The Role of Mother-Child Relationship and Paternal Coparenting

Purpose

This study investigates the relationship between mother phubbing and preschoolers' problematic media use, examining the mediating role of the mother-child relationship and the moderating effects of paternal coparenting. Drawing on the Interactive Theory of Childhood Problematic Media Use and family system theory, we aim to identify key family dynamics that influence early childhood media habits. The findings could provide insights into mitigating the negative impacts of parental phubbing on children's media habits and inform targeted interventions to promote healthier media use among young children.

Methods

The study examined 1008 mothers (Mage = 35.58 years, SD = 3.90) with preschool-aged children (Mage = 4.59 years, SD = 0.92) who completed self-report questionnaires. Path analysis with bootstrap sampling was executed to assess the moderated mediation model.

Results

Mother phubbing was positively associated with preschoolers' problematic media use, with this relationship mediated by the mother-child relationship. Paternal coparenting moderated both the direct and indirect pathways in this relationship. Specifically, paternal coparenting directly mitigated the impact of mother phubbing on child problematic media use. Additionally, it alleviated the negative influence of mother phubbing on the mother-child relationship, thereby indirectly reducing its adverse effect on preschoolers' problematic media use. Overall, paternal coparenting demonstrated a protective function against the negative consequences of mother phubbing.

Conclusion

The findings significantly contribute to our understanding of how mother phubbing might increase the risk of problematic media use among preschoolers and underscore the potential importance of reducing mother phubbing and increasing paternal coparenting as integral steps to prevent preschoolers' problematic media use.

Mothers speak less to infants during detected real-world phone use

The current study is the first to document the real-time association between phone use and speech to infants in extended real-world interactions. N= 16 predominantly White (75%) mother-infant dyads (infants aged M = 4.1 months, SD = 2.3; 63% female) shared 16,673 min of synchronized real-world phone use and Language Environment Analysis audio data over the course of 1 week (collected 2017-2020) for our analyses. Maternal phone use was associated with a 16% decrease in infants' speech input, with shorter intervals of phone use (1-2 min) associated with a greater 26% decrease in speech input relative to longer periods. This work highlights the value of multimodal sensing to access dynamic, within-person, and context-specific predictors of speech to infants in real-world settings.

Social interactions offset the detrimental effects of digital media use on children's vocabulary

Young children's rapid vocabulary growth during the first few years is supported by input during social interactions with caregivers and, increasingly, from digital media. However, the amount of exposure to both sources can vary substantially across socioeconomic classes, and little is known about how social interactions and digital media use together predict vocabulary in the first few years of life. The current study takes a first step toward examining whether increased social interactions with other individuals may buffer the potentially detrimental effects of digital media use on language among a socioeconomically diverse sample. 305 caregivers of children between 17 and 30-months completed questionnaires about their family demographics, their child's technology use, and the child's daily routines and social interactions. Findings suggest children who experience fewer human interactions and greater technology exposure have smaller vocabularies than their peers who socialize more and use less technology, and this disparity becomes greater as children get older. Moreover, the number of social interactions moderates the link between SES, digital media, and vocabulary such that the negative impact of digital media on vocabulary for children from low SES households can be offset with increased social interactions. Together, this suggests that increasing the amount of human interactions may serve as a protective factor for vocabulary outcomes in a world where digital media use is prominent.

Use of digital devices, family functioning, and language development in preschool children: a cross-sectional study

PURPOSE

This study aimed to analyse the relationship between the use of digital devices, family function, and language development in preschool children.

METHODS

This cross-sectional, descriptive-correlational study included a sample of 93 parent-child dyads. The children were of an average age of 57.01 ± 9.95 months, and the majority were female. The data collection instruments included a questionnaire on the use of digital devices, the Portuguese version of the Family Flexibility and Cohesion Evaluation Scale - Version IV (FACES-IV), and a Preschool Language Test (TL-ALPE).

RESULTS

The findings showed a greater tendency of children to use smartphones, tablets, and television for 0-3 hours daily. The analysis of the responses on the FACES-IV and TL-ALPE instruments showed that most of the participating families were of the balanced type and that most children had normal language development. Statistically significant relationships were found between the FACES-IV subscales and TL-ALPE subtests, FACES-IV subscales and the use of digital devices, and the use of digital devices and TL-ALPE subtests. Notably, children in more balanced family functioning scored higher on TL-ALPE tests, and the time spent using digital devices may compromise language development.

CONCLUSION

This study highlights the impact of digital device use and the role of family functioning on children's language development, suggesting that moderate digital device use and balanced family functioning are facilitating factors for good language development.

"It helps and it doesn't help": maternal perspectives on how the use of smartphones and tablet computers influences parent-infant attachment

As families increase their use of mobile touch screen devices (smartphones and tablet computers), there is potential for this use to influence parent-child interactions required to form a secure attachment during infancy, and thus future child developmental outcomes. Thirty families of infants (aged 9-15 months) were interviewed to explore how parents and infants use these devices, and how device use influenced parents' thoughts, feelings and behaviours towards their infant and other family interactions. Two-thirds of infants were routinely involved in family video calls and one-third used devices for other purposes. Parent and/or child device use served to both enhance connection and increase distraction between parents and infants and between other family members. Mechanisms for these influences are discussed. The findings highlight a new opportunity for how hardware and software should be designed and used to maximise benefits and reduce detriments of device use to optimise parent-infant attachment and child development.Practitioner Summary: Many families with infants regularly use smartphones and tablet computers. This qualitative study found that how devices were used either enhanced or disrupted feelings of parent-infant attachment. Practitioners should be aware of the potential beneficial and detrimental impacts of device use among families given implications for attachment and future child development.

Do toys get in the way? The duration of shared emotional experiences is longer when mothers engage their infants without toys

During mother-infant interaction, shared emotional experiences, defined as reciprocal and synchronous emotional sharing between mother and infant, are an indicator of early relational health. Yet, it is unclear how mothers' efforts to engage with their infants relate to dyadic-level shared emotional experiences. Utilizing a sample of 80 randomly selected videos of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, we examined how mothers' bids for interaction with their 6-month-old infants related to the duration of shared emotional experiences. An event sampling, sequential coding system was used to identify a maternal bid for interaction (i.e., with toy, without toy) and the subsequent presence or absence of a shared emotional experience, including duration of the shared emotional experience. Results indicated that shared emotional experiences were longer following mothers' efforts to engage their infants in play without toys. Findings suggest that methods matter; researchers and practitioners interested in studying and promoting shared emotional experiences between mothers and infants may wish to focus on dyadic interactions without toys.

Managing Screen Use in the Under-Fives: Recommendations for Parenting Intervention Development

The impact of excessive screen use on children's health and development is a public health concern and many countries have published recommendations to limit and guide the use of screen media in childhood. Despite this, international studies report that the majority of parents and children do not adhere to screen use recommendations. Existing research aiming to understand children' screen use has largely focused on older children, and on demographic and structural aspects of the child's environment. Parents play a central role in determining young children's screen use and identify numerous barriers to developing healthy screen use practices with their children. However, no clear models exist that incorporate key parenting factors in understanding children's screen use, which presents an impediment to intervention development. Likewise, while some evidence exists for interventions to improve children's screen use behaviours, most are focused on older children and parental involvement has generally been limited. In this paper, we overview key factors associated with screen use in young children (< 5 years) and summarise the existing evidence base for interventions designed to support healthy screen use. This paper proposes a conceptual model linking aspects of parenting and the socio-ecological environment to young children's screen use. Our proposed model could be used to design longitudinal studies of screen use predictors and outcomes, and inform intervention development. Finally, the paper provides key recommendations for future research, intervention development and testing.