Project EMBRACE

About

Concerns have grown over increased parent smartphone use (SPU) during infant caregiving. Utilizing phone-logged data, we know parent SPU averages 5 hours per day, with SPU occurring during 27% of their time with their infant (with some as high as 75%). Emerging data illustrate the presence and use of devices can lead to distraction in parenting and parent-child interactions, termed ‘technoference'. For example, short-term laboratory experiments illustrate SPU negatively impacts parenting behavior (e.g., lowered sensitivity/responsiveness) and infant behavioral, emotional, and cognitive development (e.g., negative affect, decreased word learning, etc.). Impacts of technoference on parent outcomes are complex; SPU is associated with poorer mental health (e.g., depression), but other research highlights many ways SPU positively impacts parent well-being, such as obtaining support, seeking information, and coping with stress and child behavior. Overall, these studies suggest possible bidirectional influences between SPU, infant socioemotional development, and parent well-being.

However, no studies have examined parent SPU during life as it is lived at the momentary level, which is necessary to understand how SPU during one moment may influence parents and infants during future moments, and vice-versa. Although it has been theorized, it remains unclear whether moment-to-moment disruptions in parenting due to SPU—especially if frequent—lead to long-term consequences for infant development. Available “broad strokes” data on parent SPU (e.g., duration, number of pick-ups) also lacks the nuance needed to understand bidirectional associations between SPU and both positive and negative aspects of well-being at both shorter-term moment-to-moment and longer-term developmental levels, and how these associations affect parent-infant interactions and infant socioemotional outcomes. Thus, an in-depth exploration of both moment-to-moment and longer-term associations between parent SPU and parent and infant behaviors and outcomes is necessary to advance the field and inform clinical/community recommendations. We focus specifically on mothers, as they are often the primary caregivers during early infancy.

We will recruit around 150 mothers and their approximately 2-month-old infants. Brief EMA survey bursts (5 per day for 5 days) at 2, 3, 4, and 5 months of age will assess maternal responsiveness, mood, stress, guilt, and empowerment and infant difficult behavior, negative affect, and positive affect. Mothers will also complete monthly surveys to capture broader parent, family, and infant characteristics. Through remote mother-infant feeding observations when infants are 2 and 5 months old, we will assess mother-infant interaction quality (e.g., maternal sensitivity) and markers of infant SED (e.g., negative affect). Mothers’ SPU will also be objectively measured via an app across the entire study period.

Partners

• Parkview Mirro Center for Research and Innovation
• Alison Ventura, California Polytechnic State University
• Lara Wolfers, University of Amsterdam
• Adam Galovan, University of Alberta
• Sarah Coyne, Brigham Young University

Funding

• Children and Screens Institute: CS-IRGP-002

Publications and presentations

Press

• Children and Screens. (2024, January). Children and Screens awards $300,000 grant for research on impacts of parental phone use on social emotional development in early infancy. [link]

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