The latest research suggests texting while parenting leads to negativity and resentment.
How often do you look at your smartphone per day?
And how often do you look at it when you’re around your kids?
According to a new study from Boston Medical Center, parents who get absorbed by their smartphones while with their children, are more likely to have more negative interactions with them, as the kids feel that they’re competing with a device for their parents attention.
The study, led by Dr. Jenny Radesky, a fellow in developmental-and-behavioural paediatrics at Boston Medical Centre, surreptitiously observed parents and children eating together at fast-food restaurants.
They recorded the interactions of 55 groups of parents and kids and paid most attention to how frequently and for how long the adults looked at their smartphones.
The data showed just how absorbed many parents were in their devices and how frustrated the kids were in response to this. In one observation, a child reached over to lift his mother’s face away from her tablet in an attempt to get her attention during the meal.
Dr. Radesky told TIME magazine, “What stood out was that in a subset of caregivers using the device almost through the entire meal, how negative their interactions could become with the kids.”
Now, before we all go into a “smartphones are bad and the world is doomed” vortex, it’s important to note the nuances within the research.
Reading between the lines of the study, it appears that the problems seem to occur when parents are absorbed in their phones for the entire meal, or when they are unresponsive to their kids when they are talking to them. But the study is not all roses either – what can be just a quick check of an email can easily escalate to absorption for longer than we think.
So what can we do?
In the light of this research Dr. Radesky and her colleagues are working with the American Academy of Paediatrics to develop guidelines for the use of smart smartphones in front of the kids – just like the guidelines in place for use of TV and kids. In the meantime, the suggestion is to develop our own guidelines and ‘no-device’ times during family times.
Do you have your own personal ‘guidelines’ when it comes to smartphones around your kids? Do you have set no-device times?
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