Parents’ Phone Use Could Be Harming Preteens’ Mental Health

Parents who spend an excessive amount of time scrolling on their phones may be increasing their child’s chances of anxiety, inattention, and hyperactivity, new research has found.

Have you ever found yourself so distracted by your phone that you unintentionally ignore your own child? It’s a scenario that frequently occurs in the age of technology, and it may have more serious impacts on your child’s mental health than you previously thought.

That’s according to a new study, conducted by researchers at the University of Alberta and published in JAMA Network Open, which found that preteens whose parents spent more time on their phones were more likely to be anxious, inattentive, and hyperactive later on.

The study asked 1,303 kids aged nine to 11 about their parents’ cell phone use, finding that those who experienced more “technoference” — referring to interruptions in routine social interactions due to technology use — were more likely to experience mental health issues.

“When children’s emotional and physical needs are consistently ignored or inappropriately responded to, they are at risk of developing mental health difficulties, underscoring the need to investigate parental technoference as a potential precipitant of the development of mental health difficulties, such as depression, anxiety, hyperactivity, and inattention,” the authors wrote.

Previous research has found that many parents spend a ton of time on their phones. One recent phone-tracking study of parents with young infants found that parents spend 5.12 hours per day on their smartphones, and their infant is also engaged with their digital device for about 27% of that time.

Across age groups, rates remain similar, with 68% of United States parents with a child younger than 17 years reporting that they become distracted by their smartphones during interactions with their children.

According to background research used for this study, parental technoference in early childhood is associated with decreases in parent-child engagement, reduced ability to notice and attend to children’s needs, less frequent and lower-quality joint play and conversational turns, more negative responses to children’s behavior, and higher risk of child injury.

In adolescence, meanwhile, adolescent-perceived parental technoference is associated with higher levels of parent-child conflict and lower levels of parental emotional support and warmth.

In this particular study, researchers aimed to determine the potential impact of parental technoference on preteens specifically because, as the authors note, “this age range represents a sensitive period of brain development and is associated with an increased risk for mental health difficulties.”

Participants were asked questions about their parents’ technology use and were also screened for mental health issues. The results showed that those who felt their parents spent too much time online also had higher levels of anxiety, attention issues, and hyperactivity.

But while it is possible that parental technoference could be worsening preteens’ mental health issues, the authors note that the opposite could also be true. In other words, parents of preteens with depression, anxiety, hyperactivity, or inattention symptoms may withdraw from interacting with their child over time and use technology to cope with stress related to their child’s mental health difficulties.

“This study highlights the complex relations between parental technoference and emerging adolescents’ mental health,” the authors wrote, “and highlights the need to address parental technology use when considering emerging adolescents’ well-being.”