Family Meals in the Digital Age: Associations of Parent and Child Mealtime Phone Use With Disordered Eating

Despite public health advice to limit phone use during mealtimes, research describing the benefits of family meals and the potential vulnerability of individuals with binge eating to use phones as a distraction from mealtime stress, associations of mealtime phone use and binge eating are understudied. The current study examined the role of phones in family meals by (1) describing proportions of children and parents (including those with binge eating) using phones during family meals and (2) examining associations of parent phone use with eating/weight-focused parenting practices.

Parents (N = 210) completed a cross-sectional survey. Parents reported how often they and their children used phones during family meals. Parents also reported motivations for mealtime phone use, parenting practices, and binge eating.

Phone use during family meals was common, particularly among parents, and was largely unrelated to demographic characteristics. Parents reported phone use was most strongly motivated by sharing a positive moment with their child. Binge eating was associated with phone use among both parents and children. Parents with binge eating reported phone use more strongly motivated by emotion regulation and parenting stress than unaffected parents. Parent phone use was associated with stronger parental overvaluation of weight/shape and more frequent negative weight talk.

Although there were associations between phone use at family meals and eating/weight-focused parenting, findings also suggested nuance such that not just the use of phones but the motivation for the use of phones at mealtimes is an important area to study.