Are parents less responsive to their children when they are using a phone? Giulio Gabrieli Follow Apr 11 · 3 min read

Should we play Candy Crush when taking care of our children?

General knowledge suggests that while we are using a phone we are less responsive to the others, but does the same applies to our children’s needs? Studies conducted in restaurants and playgrounds revealed that between 50% and 75% of parents used their phones at least once when out with their children. Moreover, studies on parental responses toward their children revealed that they were less concerned with the safety of their kids, less likely to interact with them, and less responsive toward their needs.

A mother and her children playing with a tablet (Photo by Alexander Dummer on Unsplash).

Unfortunately, the almost totality of the studies conducted so far consisted of ethnographic studies. To overcome the limitations of previous works, Vanden Abeele and colleagues conducted a systematic study on the interaction between parents and their children that has been recently published on “Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking”.

Parents, children, and phones

In this study, the authors investigated the interaction of 53 parents and their children in both a playground and a consultation bureau’ waiting room. To evaluate the impact of a possible desirability bias, almost half of the parents (25) were informed beforehand of the experiment, while for the remaining dyads, consent was requested at the end of the observation. Trained coders observed both parents’ and children’s behavior using a self-developed coding instrument that allows for the evaluation of parents’ activities, children’s bid for attention, and parents’ response to the bids for attention.

A young kid seeking attention (Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash).

Results

Results of their study confirmed that while on their phone, parents were less likely to react to the request of attention of their children. Moreover, parents when slower in responding to their children, and the quality of the interactions was lower when parents when engaged in an activity with their phones. Additionally, responses were less strong and less positive. Finally, parents were almost four times less likely to use their phones if they were informed beforehand of the study.

Overall, the findings suggest that the very nature of phones causes users into a state of “absent presence”, with parents less likely to respond to their children’s needs, and even when they do, the interactions are of lower quality.

TL, DR: Parents, if you are with your children, please don’t use your phone.

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Source

Mariek M.P. Vanden Abeele, Monika Abels, and Andrew T. Hendrickson (2020), Are Parents Less Responsive to Young Children When They Are on Their Phones ? A Systematic Naturalistic Observation Study, Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking http://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2019.0472