Smartphones and Parent-Child Interactions: Texting Impacts Behaviors, but No Mere Presence Effect

The purpose of this study was to examine changes in parent-child behaviors when the parent was interacting with a smartphone. Technoference or everyday interruptions from smartphone use may lead to lower levels of parent-child engagement. In some cases, the “mere presence” of a smartphone can interfere with interactions, even when the phone is not used. Using a repeated measures design, 30 parent-child dyads (Parents: 26 mothers, 4 fathers, Mage = 33.97 years, SD = 4.93; Children: 16 girls, 14 boys, Mage = 37.14 months, SD = 10.32 months) were videotaped interacting with toys across three conditions including a texting condition, where the parent received and responded to unpredictable text messages, a “mere presence” condition where parents expected to receive text messages, but did not, and a no phone condition where the phone was turned off and out of sight. Videotapes of the dyads were coded for parent and child behaviors across the three conditions. As expected, parents were less responsive, less likely to scaffold their child’s behavior, and engaged in less coordinated joint attention when texting compared to the no phone condition. Children produced more bids for attention when the parents were texting compared to no phone condition. The “mere presence” of a smartphone did not impact the parent or child’s behavior, with responses resembling the no phone condition. These results suggest that actively using a smartphone compromises parent and child behaviors, but the mere presence of the phone does not.