Mobile device notifications, pickups and associations with parent stress: Digital tool or digital disruptor?

• In Event: The complex feelings and family correlates surrounding parent technology use

Abstract

---INTRODUCTION: Mobile devices have near-universal adoption in family life, with parents spending about 4 hours per day on mobile devices (Radesky, 2019). Each day, individuals receive an average of 90 mobile device notifications and pick up their mobile device 80 times (Ellis, 2019). Frequent notifications may demand individuals’ attention at inopportune moments (McDaniel, 2016) and contribute to feelings of stress (Mehrotra, 2016). Yet, this has not been objectively characterized in parents. As mobile device notifications and pickups may be easily modified through device settings, it is important to examine them as a possible actionable source of stress for parents. We aimed to characterize parent mobile device notifications and pickups using objectively-collected mobile device data and test the hypothesis that greater daily mobile device notifications and pickups are associated with greater daily parent stress.
---METHOD: Parents (n=62) of children aged 48-71 months participated in a within- and between-subjects, cross-sectional study (2020-2021). Parents downloaded a passive sensing app (Chronicle) on their Android mobile devices, collecting data over four days on duration, device notifications, and pickups (parent picks up and engages with mobile device). Pickups were then classified as either device-initiated (parent picks up device ≤60 seconds after receiving a notification) or parent-initiated (parent picks up device without a notification). Parents reported age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, marital status, and income. Race/ethnicity was included because of systemic discrimination leading to digital inequities for Black and LatinX individuals. Parents completed the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), a validated and reliable 20-item questionnaire, rating depressive symptoms on a 0-3 Likert scale (0=rarely or none of the time [less than 1 day], 3=most or all of the time [5-7 days]). Each evening, parents completed an end-of-day stress survey adapted from the Daily Health Diary, which asked parents “How stressful was your day?” on a 0-4 Likert scale (0=not at all, 4=extremely). We used random effects models via PROC MIXED in SAS, adjusting for covariates identified a priori with backwards elimination of covariates p <.05 We included a random intercept and slope with an unstructured covariance structure, to account for within-subjects correlations due to having multiple measures within a subject (1-4 days per subject).
---RESULTS: On average, parents received 293 daily notifications and picked up their phones 93 times (Table 1). Daily duration and notifications were not associated with parent stress (Table 2). Total pickups and device-initiated pickups (but not parent-initiated pickups) were associated with parent stress, after adjusting for parent depression (Table 2).
---DISCUSSION: Though parents received frequent daily notifications, notifications were not associated with stress. Device-initiated pickups (but not parent-initiated pickups) were associated with parent stress. Parent-initiated pickups may reflect greater parent agency over mobile device use, whereas device-initiated pickups may reflect an unwelcome interruption prompting parents to use their device. One limitation is that data were collected during the COVID-19 pandemic when mobile device use and stressors may be higher. Strengths include the within-subjects comparison and use of objective mobile device data. Future work should consider content of parent notifications and pickups.

Authors

• Tiffany Munzer
  Presenting Author

• Alison Leslie Miller, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• Heidi M. Weeks, University of Michigan

• Niko Kaciroti

• Jenny Radesky, University of Michigan