Article: Is your phone addiction harming your kids?
Is your phone addiction harming your kids? Researchers warn constantly checking handsets can cause conflicts with children
- Parents’ mobile technology use is found to create problems at home
- Study finds it causes internal tension, conflicts and negative interactions
- Kids crave more attention when parents are heavily involved with devices
- Expert says parents should track usage, set boundaries and stay away from web activity that increases stress levels in order to find a balance
It’s not just kids who are addicted to technology – parents are just as guilty, researchers have warned.
A new study reveals parents’ use of mobile technology around young children may be causing internal tension, conflicts and negative interactions within relationships.
Researchers suggest parents should track mobile usage, set boundaries and stay away from web activity that increases stress levels.
Parents are estimated to use smartphones, tablets and wearables for at least three hours everyday.
And although they often complain their children are glued to devices, previous research has shown that 34 percent of children believe it’s their parents who are more addicted.
A study from the University of Michigan Health System has found that as technology has blurred the lines between work, home and social lives – parents struggle to finding a healthy balance.
‘Parents are constantly feeling like they are in more than one place at once while parenting,’ says lead author Jenny Radesky, M.D., a child behavior expert and pediatrician at University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital who conducted the study with colleagues from Boston Medical Center.
‘They’re still ‘at work’. They’re keeping up socially. All while trying to cook dinner and attend to their kids.’
During the study, Radesky and her colleagues recruited 35 caregivers, which included moms, dads and grandmothers, and asked them about their mobile technology use.
The team found that each participant was consistently expressing an internal battle between multitasking mobile technology use, work and children, information overload and emotional tensions around disrupting family routines, such as meal times.
HOW TO DISCONNECT
- Set boundaries: Create a family plan that includes places and times of day where devices are not to be used. For example, make a rule that there are to be no devices at dinner time or bedtime.
- Track your mobile use: Find out which apps that you spend the most uses, then create a block or filter to help you cut down on usage.
- Apps like ‘Moment’ and ‘Quality Time’ may also help you track mobile use and see where you may be spending too much time.
- Identify top device stressors: Reserve parts about your mobile device that are most stressful when your kids are occupied, such as checking work emails or reading the news. This way, you have your own time and space to process the information rather than interrupting time with kids who may react to your negative emotions with their own negativity.
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