Distracted Play: The Effects of Technology on Parent-Child Interactions During Early Childhood

• In Event: Poster Session 05
  In Poster Session: PS 05 Topic - Technology, Media & Child Development

Abstract

Many researchers have examined the impacts of children’s use of mobile devices on development (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2018; Radesky, Schumacher, & Zuckerman, 2015, but little attention has been paid to the impact of parental mobile device usage on children’s outcomes. “Technoference” is a recently coined term that refers to the “everyday interruptions in interpersonal interactions or time spent together that occur due to digital and mobile technology devices” (McDaniel & Radesky, 2018, p. 100). High-quality early parent-child interactions are essential for positive child development outcomes (Roggman, Boyce, Innocenti, & Raikes, 2008), but parental mobile device use during interactions may interfere with a parent’s ability to be responsive to their child (Myruski et al., 2017; Radesky et al., 2016). As the prevalence of mobile device use in the daily lives of young children and their families continues to increase (Pew Research Center, 2018), it is important to understand how these devices might interfere with the quality of parent-child interactions. This study examined the impact of parental mobile device use on the quality of observed parent-child interactions by answering the following questions:
1. How does frequent text messaging interference impact the quality of observed parent-child play interactions?
2. How do parent-child play interactions differ when using a physical toy versus an app on a mobile device?

Twenty parents with a child between the ages of 14-36 months engaged in a 15-minute video recorded parent-child play session broken into three five-minute play sessions. During one of the sessions, the parent engaged in typical play with their child for five minutes using a provided toy. A second session involved the parent and child playing with the same toy while the researcher sent the parent one text message per minute that required a response. The third session involved the parent and child playing an app on an iPad for five minutes. The quality of parent-child interaction in each session was assessed using the Parenting Interactions with Children: Checklist of Observations Linked to Outcomes (PICCOLO; Roggman, Cook, Innocenti, Norman, & Christiansen, 2008), which measures 29 parenting across four domains of affection, responsiveness, encouragement, and teaching. Each of the five-minute segments of parent-child play were coded, with 25% of the videos double-coded for inter-rater reliability. Paired sample t-tests indicate that parents engaged in significantly lower quality interactions with their children when they experienced frequent texting interference, but there was no significant difference in the overall quality of parent-child play interactions when playing with the traditional toy or the app. Although there were no significant differences in overall quality of interaction when playing with a traditional toy or the app, domain level analyses indicate that parents were less responsive and used about 100 fewer words when engaging in play with the app. Results of this study could be utilized to develop family education around the impact of technology on interaction quality and child development. Strategies could be developed to help families manage technology interference in their lives and to promote positive parent-child interactions.

Author

• Melissa Clucas Walter, Northern Illinois University
  Presenting Author