Should Parents Spend Less Time On Their Phones Around Their Children?

A new study published in Frontiers in Psychology looked at a potential relationship between a primary caregiver’s device-centric behaviors and attachment.

“Our study was designed to investigate if a primary caregiver’s/parent’s device-centric behaviors have any relationship with the security of attachment they share with their children,” study first author, Dr. Don Grant told us. “We were hoping to discover if it does (as we predicted) or does not.”

The research team embarked upon the study to test Dr. Grant’s theory that a primary caregiver’s/parent’s device behaviors do have a significant relationship with the attachment security they have with their child. The research team investigated adolescents’ perceptions of their primary caregivers’ device-centric behaviors and their potential association with the caregiver–adolescent attachment relationship. They hypothesized that adolescents’ perceptions of greater caregiver device use would be associated with higher levels of insecure attachment.

“Attachment security is such an important developmental variable,” Dr. Grant told us. “One could argue that it informs everything in terms of a child’s ego strength, willingness to take risks, belief in self, relationships, and confidence.”

Dr. Grant has spent the better part of two decades investigating the potential impacts and outcomes of adolescent and young adult screen engagement. However, about ten years ago, he started to notice some ‘in real life’ (IRL) concerning primary caregiver device use behaviors when proximal IRL to their children. 

“In addition, adolescent and teen clients in both our 1:1 and group sessions together began sharing with me their negative feelings about the same behaviors of their primary caregivers/parents,” Dr. Grant told us. “It was also introduced by kids during our family counseling sessions.” 

Dr. Grant’s colleagues across the country have shared of having had similar experiences with clients so he decided to investigate it to see if there was any legitimate scientific evidence of its potential relationship with attachment. 

“Finally (and where the title of our paper came from), a brilliant clinical psychologist colleague of mine, who is also a fantastic mom and familiar with my work in the device behavior space, came to me several years ago and shared that her daughter had asked her if she loved her phone more than her,” Dr. Grant told us. “My wonderful colleague was both dumbstruck and devastated and quasi-joked, ‘I think I may need your help, Don’ (i.e., with healthier device management skills and strategies).”

The researchers found it incredibly exciting at how significant their results were, proving Dr. Grant’s hypothesis that there is a significant relationship between a primary caregiver’s/parent’s device behaviors and the attachment security with their child. The researchers found that it absolutely can and has a relationship with both insecure anxious and insecure avoidant attachment security outcomes. Of particular note are the significance of the ‘p’ values which were consistently <.001 across="" all="" parts="" of="" the="" investigation="" from="" validity="" testing="" new="" instrument="" required="" to="" test="" hypotheses="" as="" well="" both="" study="" outcomes.="" wp_automatic_readability="30.758888170653">

“We are not saying that every time a child submits a bid for attention a parent has to drop everything (including whatever they are doing on their devices-especially if it involves working) and answer it,” Dr. Grant told us. “We are recommending that when those bids occur, a parent does acknowledge, recognize, affirm, and respond to it in some way. If the primary caregiver/parent is unable to immediately address the bid, then even just acknowledging it and then advising the child when they will be able to give it proper attention should be, we believe, the proper parenting response to the bid.”

Dr. Grant is hoping word gets out about the study results to parents and caregivers.  One of the target populations which he believes really needs to know about this research is millennials. 

“Considered what some believe to be the first ‘digital native’ generation (especially those on the younger end of that cohort), they were in turn more potentially vulnerable to becoming ‘dependent’-or ‘attached’ (pun intended!) on their devices,” Dr. Grant told us. “They are now becoming parents themselves.  So, I really want them to know about our study to help them avoid potentially negative outcomes of their device-based behaviors in terms of attachment security with their children.”

Dr. Grant and his research team are now interested in investigating their theory with specific populations, cultures, and demographics.