Navigating the digital age: Children's self-regulatory skills and technoference in parent–child interactions

Objective

This study aimed to examine the pathways connecting child effortful control with technoference while considering the roles of parenting stress and mothers' problematic smartphone use, characterized by an inability to regulate compulsive smartphone use.

Background

Interruptions caused by technology use, commonly referred to as technoference, have significant implications for child development and parent–child interactions. Despite previous studies indicating a link between technoference and child effortful control, the directionality of this relationship remains ambiguous.

Method

A total of 199 mothers with children aged 3 to 7 years living in Türkiye participated in an online survey, providing data on the frequency of technoference in parent–child interactions, parenting stress, parental problematic smartphone use, and their children's effortful control.

Results

A significant mediation model, F(6, 187) = 10.73, R² = .26, p < .001, indicated that parents of children with lower effortful control reported heightened levels of parenting stress, subsequently resulting in increased problematic smartphone use and a greater incidence of technoference in parent–child interactions (standardized indirect effect coefficient = −.04, SE = .02, 95% bias-corrected and accelerated confidence interval [−.13, −.08]).

Conclusion

Overall, increased parenting stress related to children's poorer effortful control may drive parents to seek solace in smartphone use, resulting in more interruptions in parent–child interactions.

Implications

By identifying a pathway from children's effortful control skills to technoference in parent–child interactions, the study emphasizes the significance of recognizing the role of mobile devices in contemporary family life.