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Parents’ Desire to Change Phone Use: Associations with Smartphone Use and Feelings About Phone Use

Fri, March 24, 12:00 to 1:30pm, Salt Palace Convention Center, Meeting Room 355 F

Abstract

---BACKGROUND: Parental mobile phone use (MPU) is a niched experience both in terms of how much devices are used while alone and around partners and/or children (Garg, 2021; Hiniker et al., 2015; McDaniel & Radesky, 2018). Although MPU can be supportive (e.g., providing connection, stress-relief; McDaniel, 2019), problematic MPU (e.g., excessive use, distraction, nighttime use) can impact parents’ sleep quality, mood, and mental health (McDaniel & Radesky, 2018; McDaniel et al., 2022; Newsham et al., 2019). MPU also can shift the quality of family interactions via distraction and interruptions (Hiniker et al., 2015; McDaniel & Radesky, 2018; McDaniel, 2021). Unsurprisingly, many parents express internal tension about their MPU (Radesky et al., 2016), and some may desire to change. This study examined parents’ desire for MPU behavior change—utilizing the Transtheoretical Stages of Change model (Prochaska, 1997)—and whether desire for change was linked with objectively-measured MPU and perceptions of problematic MPU.
---METHOD: Participants included 268 parents of infants (76% mothers, 93% heterosexual, 21% ethnic minority, Median income = $70,000), who completed a baseline survey (e.g., Readiness to Change) and then had their phone use tracked for 8 days via an app and who also completed 8 nights of surveys—including a time diary where they marked the time they went to bed, the times they were physically with their infant in 15-minute intervals, etc. We created variables based on their average use: Bedtime MPU (use during hour before and two hours after bedtime); MPU around child (use during child times divided by total child time); Meal/Feeding MPU (amount during child meals/feedings divided by total meal/feeding time); Mobile game hours; and social media use hours split into: Media Sharing (e.g., Instagram), Messaging (e.g., Facebook messenger), Social network (e.g., Facebook), Video chat (e.g., FaceTime).
---RESULTS: We conducted a latent profile analysis in Mplus with the stages of change subscales as indicators (i.e., precontemplation, contemplation, and action) and found 2 profiles of desire for change (Figure 1). Precontemplators (15%) were not thinking about changing. Contemplators (85%) disagreed with the precontemplation items, agreed with the contemplation items, but did not appear to have moved into action—i.e., they desire/are thinking about change. Overall, contemplators showed greater objective MPU around bedtime, social networking, and mobile gaming, but did not differ on MPU around child, total phone hours, and the other objective indicators. Contemplators scored higher on perceptions of problematic MPU around their child and feelings of distraction (Table 1).
---CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest an overwhelming majority (85%) of our participants were contemplating MPU change. Thus, MPU is a salient issue and may be ripe for intervention. Overall, a few MPU aspects related to desire for change (e.g., social networking). More interesting however is that most objective measures did not relate (e.g., total MPU, MPU around child). This represents a disconnect between actual characteristics and desire. Yet, parents’ perceptions of phone distraction differentiated those considering change, accentuating the potential importance of perception over reality.

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