Distracted Parenting: Examining the Implications of Parental Smartphone Engagement on Child Wellbeing

Abstract The implications of parental smartphone use on children’s mental health and well-being have garnered significant scholarly attention recently. Nevertheless, existing studies predominantly focus on the immediate digital disruptions to ongoing parent-child interactions or often rely on self-reported data from either parents or children, with few studies combining perspectives from both sides. This study addresses this gap by merging datasets from both parents and children (aged 10 to 15) to investigate the influence of parental smartphone engagement on children’s (a) emotional disturbances, (b) conduct disorders, and (c) interpersonal relationship difficulties, in a broader context. The findings indicate that parental smartphone engagement is marginally associated with higher levels of emotional disturbances and conduct disorders in children. Notably, children’s own social media use significantly moderates these associations. The negative effects of parental smartphone use on child mental health outcomes are most pronounced among children who engage less frequently with social media, suggesting that digital networks may serve a compensatory, protective buffering role for adolescents experiencing high levels of parental smartphone engagement.