Parents’ mobile phone use for social media and gaming can disrupt family time, with mothers more likely to use social media and perceive it as interfering with family time, while fathers report higher levels of mobile gaming. This research was published in Psychology of Popular Media.
Mobile phone use has become a constant presence in family life. Parents frequently use their smartphones for various activities, including social media and mobile gaming, often while interacting with their children. Past research has shown that this “technoference” can disrupt parent-child interactions and affect children’s behavior and development. For instance, parents distracted by mobile devices may be less responsive to their children’s needs, leading to poorer-quality interactions.
Research on how different types of phone use affect family time is still developing, and the effects on parenting stress remain unclear. Brandon T. McDaniel and colleagues explored these dynamics further, focusing on the differences between mothers’ and fathers’ phone use.
This study involved 183 heterosexual couples with children under the age of five, for a total of 355 parents (179 mothers and 176 fathers). The average age of the parents was ~32 years, and their children were, on average, ~3 years old. Participants were primarily Caucasian, married, and had higher levels of education. Both mothers and fathers were recruited from an online database and completed a survey about their phone use, perceived impact on family time, and levels of parenting stress.
The researchers measured parents’ perceived mobile phone use for texting, calling, social media, and mobile gaming. They also asked participants how much they felt their social media and mobile gaming activities cut into family time. Parenting stress was assessed using the Parenting Stress Index–Short Form (PSI-SF), with participants responding to 27 items about their experiences, such as feeling overwhelmed by their child’s behavior.
The researchers found that mothers were more likely to use social media than fathers, with 61% of mothers using social media for more than 31 minutes per day compared to 38% of fathers. Conversely, fathers reported higher levels of mobile gaming, with 23% of fathers engaging in mobile gaming for more than 31 minutes per day compared to 16% of mothers. Mothers were also more likely to perceive their social media use as cutting into family time, while there were no significant gender differences in perceptions of MG cutting into family time.
Parenting stress was found to be associated with greater social media use and mobile gaming, as well as with higher perceptions of technoference, meaning that parents who reported higher levels of stress were also more likely to feel that their phone use interfered with family time. However, this association was stronger for mobile gaming than for social media use.
These findings suggest that interventions aimed at reducing technoference should consider the type of phone activity and the parent’s gender to be more effective in mitigating its impact on family life.
One limitation is that the study relied on self-reported measures of phone use and perceived technoference, which may not accurately reflect actual phone usage or its impact on family interactions.
The research, “Parent social media use and gaming on mobile phones, technoference in family time, and parenting stress”, was authored by Brandon T. McDaniel, Alison K. Ventura, and Michelle Drouin.