Poster #152 - The Distracting Effects of Smartphone Notifications on Young Caregiver Sensitivity

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Approximately 94% of emerging adults aged 18 to 25 years in the U.S. are smartphone users (Pew Research Centre, 2018) and about 39% use smartphones continuously (Perrin & Jiang, 2018), suggesting that many young caregivers may use their devices in their infant’s presence. Such use likely results in fewer caregiver-infant interaction opportunities (Radesky et al., 2014). Even when not in active use, the mere presence of a smartphone is often distracting (Thornton et al., 2014), which may further negatively affect caregivers’ sensitivity towards their infants. In this study, we examined the impact of smartphone notification sounds on participants’ focus on a robot infant (Real Care Baby 3), programmed to make demands on their attention. Since attachment-related anxiety is linked to a greater need to stay socially connected (Feeney & Collins, 2001), and given smartphones’ significant role in the social life of emerging adults (Morey et al., 2013), we investigated the role of participants’ own attachment-related anxiety in their negotiations of the competing demands of the robot infant and the auditory alerts provided by their devices.

Eligible emerging adult participants were identified through online screening with Qualtrics, using York University’s Undergraduate Research Participant Pool (N = 254). Means for attachment-related anxiety [The Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-R); Fraley, Waller, & Brennan, 2000], attachment-related avoidance (ECR-R) and smartphone usage [The Media and Technology Usage and Attitudes Scale (MTUAS); Rosen et al., 2013] were 3.76 (SD = 1.15), 3.11, (SD = 0.98), and 6.21 (SD = 1.16) respectively.

Emerging adult participants (n = 29) with varying scores of attachment-related anxiety and smartphone usage, who did not score high (above 1 SD) on attachment-related avoidance, completed the 25-minute lab experiment. Participants’ mean age was 19 years (SD = 1.1) and 86% were females. Participants were divided into high and low attachment-related anxiety groups and were subjected to a random order of two 7-minute loud (smartphone emitted notification sounds) and quiet (no smartphone notification sounds) conditions, during which participants were instructed to address robot infants’ cries (e.g. through feeding). The duration of time participants gazed away from the infant-focused activities was recorded.

A matched-pairs two-tailed t-test determined that participants gazed away from their infant significantly longer in the loud condition [t(28) = 2.41, p = 0.023, d = 0.44]. As participants’ attachment-related anxiety increased, they gazed away significantly longer in the presence of unchecked smartphone notification sounds [r(27) = 0.421, p = 0.02, R² = 0.178]. As reported smartphone usage increased, so did attachment-related anxiety, with the correlation approximating significance [r(27) = 0.365, p = 0.052, R²= 0.133]. No statistical significance was found between smartphone usage and gazing away.

The mere presence of smartphones, even when not in active use, may impact select caregivers’ attention during caregiver-infant interactions. If replicated, these findings have important implications for young caregivers’ distraction, especially when the latter show high attachment-related anxiety and are frequent technology users. Such findings may be useful for parenting educators when discussing caregiver technology use in the presence of infants.

Authors

• Henry Jang, York University
  Presenting Author

• Yookyung Lee, York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mariami Bimm, York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Yvonne Bohr, York University
  Non-Presenting Author