Maternal Mobile Device Use and Mealtime Interactions With Children

This study examined (1) whether different types of mobile device use are associated with quantity/quality of parent-child interactions and (2) moment-to-moment changes in quantity/quality of parent-child interactions when devices are used.

In 47 videorecorded home mealtimes conducted in 2011 to 2013, we conducted detailed coding of maternal device use (talking, texting/scrolling, having device on table), frequency of mother and child verbalizations, child bids for attention, and maternal response to bids (contingent, no response, negative response) in 5-second intervals. We examined between-mother differences in parent-child interaction variables for a 10-percentage point increase in each type of device use comparisons using negative binomial or logistic regression. We then compared intervals when there was active mobile device use to nonuse intervals using generalized estimating equation logistic regression, predicting the odds of each parent-child interaction variable.

Mothers averaged 29.8 years (SD 6.10), child age 5.97 years (SD 0.56), and 55% had completed at least some college. Higher percentage of time spent texting/scrolling was associated with a lower rate of maternal verbalization (adjusted rate ratio 0.89 [95% confidence interval, 0.84-0.95]) and contingent response (adjusted rate ratio 0.92 [0.84-1.00]) and higher odds of nonresponse (adjusted odds ratio 1.13 [1.04-1.22]). In each 5-second interval of active device use, there was decreased odds of maternal verbalizations (adjusted odds ratio 0.48 [0.34-0.69]), child verbalizations (0.62 [0.44-0.88]), contingent response (0.45 [0.28-0.74]), and higher odds of maternal nonresponse (2.36 [1.40-4.00]).

These results demonstrate decreased parent-child verbal interaction and lower parent responsiveness during mobile device use, particularly with texting and scrolling.