Mums on mobiles “not harming the kids”

Mums and dads who spend a lot of time on their phones get a bad rap but now science has proven it doesn’t make you a bad parent. Here’s why.

BEING on your phone all the time doesn’t make you a bad parent, according to a new Queensland-led study.

A Queensland-led study has turned on its head the popular view that parents’ smartphone use has a negative impact on children and often a sign of bad parenting.

Griffith University researchers have found that smartphones play a part in warm and attached parenting as they provide social support and information, as long as the phone use is not heavily impacting on family time.

Published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, researchers from the School of Applied Psychology analysed 3659, parent-based surveys and tested 12 different measures of smart phone use to assess associations between smartphone use and parenting and found little evidence of a direct link.

They then explored whether the effect of phone use on parenting depended on whether or not it displaced time with family and was associated with family conflict. At low levels of displacing time with family, more smartphone use was associated with betternot worse parenting.

“Parental smartphone use has been demonised as a risk to families by various sectors of the community and media,’’ lead researcher Dr Kathryn Modecki, also a member of Menzies Health Institute Queensland said.

“But across diverse family environments, smartphones play multiple roles in family life, including provision of social support and information, and allowing for work and digital errands. As long phones are not heavily impacting on family time, smartphones tend to be tied to positive (and not negative) parenting. The challenge with much of the technology-family literature is that is has mainly stemmed from an assumption of risk and problems,” she said.

“As a result small and uneven findings can become the focus of media, policymakers and parents. This is an issue because it can cloud our insight as we consider ways to meaningfully assist parents and families to enhance positive outcomes via information and support online,” the lead author said.

The study was supported by Menzies Health Institute Queensland and co-authors are members of Murdoch University and Edith-Cowan University.