If you’re a parent and addicted to your cell phone, you could be affecting your child’s development.
A new study from the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital shows that the amount of time parents spend staring at their own screens has a devastating impact on the mental health and development of their children.
Researchers looked at 170 two-parent homes in the United States with children who were just over three years old. The parents were asked about their personal use of smartphones, laptops, tablets, and TV: How they use them when they use them, how long, with the research focusing primarily on how the usage interrupts family time, such as checking texts during dinner or during playtime.
Parents in the study were also then asked to recall how often their child whined, were hyperactive, were irritable or grumpy, or in general, acted out or behaved badly over the last two months. After adjusting for stress, anxiety, income, education, and other factors relating to the parents, the study found that even a small amount of interruptions to parent-child engagement due to technology are associated with kids behavioral problems.
Though the researchers maintain that they cannot assume a direct correlation between children’s behavior and their parents level of technology use, they do agree that there is certainly a relationship, particularly between a child and their mother.
What the researchers found is that the more time parents spend on their phones and other devices (even TV), the less meaningful interactions they have with their kids.