In a recently published study in JAMA network openedA group of researchers investigated the potential associations between perceived technoference (digital interruptions by parents) and mental health symptoms in adolescents.
background
Digital technology is an integral part of modern family life, aiding communication, planning and entertainment. However, routine use of devices can disrupt parent-child interaction, a concept known as technoference.
Studies show that parents often spend a lot of time on smartphones, leading to less engagement with their children and potentially negative effects on child development, including mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, hyperactivity, and inattention. While previous research links parental technoference to mental health problems in children, most studies are cross-sectional, which limits our understanding of causality.
Further research is needed to clarify the direction of the relationship between parental technoference and adolescent mental health to better inform prevention and intervention strategies.
About the study
The present study used data from the All Our Families cohort, a prospective study of maternal and child health in Alberta, Calgary, and Canada. Pregnant women were recruited between 2008 and 2010, with 84% of participants consenting. The analysis focused on data from adolescents collected during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which included 1,303 participants. These adolescents were similar to non-participants in terms of family income, anxiety, depression, and hyperactivity, but showed slightly less attention difficulties.
Mothers completed online questionnaires and gave consent for their children to participate in three waves from May 2020 to January 2022. Adolescents aged approximately 9.7, 10.4 and 11.1 years during the waves gave their consent. The study was ethically approved and followed guidelines for survey and cohort studies.
Parental technoference was measured using two questions adapted from existing scales that showed high internal consistency across all time points. Adolescents’ psychological symptoms such as anxiety, attention difficulties, depression, and hyperactivity were assessed using the Behavior Assessment Scale for Children (BASC-3) with standardized t-scores.
The random-intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) was used to examine both cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between parental technoference and mental health symptoms, controlling for within-family associations and trait-like factors, with gender differences examined by multigroup analysis. Data were analyzed in December 2023.
Study results
The study included 1,303 adolescents with an average age of 9.7 years at the first wave of data collection. Of these, 529 (51.5%) identified as girls, 491 (47.8%) as boys, and 8 (0.8%) as gender diverse, including identities such as genderfluid, transgender, and agender. The remaining 275 participants did not report their gender.
For the main analysis, models were developed for each mental disorder. The RI-CLPM was used to assess associations. For anxiety, hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder, the standard RI-CLPM was the best model because it did not impose restrictions on autoregressive paths. However, the RI-CLPM model for depression could not be estimated due to negative variances, suggesting that the model could not be successfully calculated with the given parameters. Nevertheless, the depression model by gender was successfully estimated and is presented in supplementary tables.
The study examined both between-family (time-invariant) and within-family (time-varying) associations between parents’ perceived technoference and adolescents’ psychological problems.
Between-family analysis revealed moderate correlations between random intercepts, suggesting that adolescents who perceived higher levels of parental technoference generally had higher levels of mental health problems, with correlation coefficients ranging from .17 to .19. Within-family cross-sectional correlations were most consistent for anxiety, with moderate correlations across all assessment time points (ranging from .21 to .28). Correlations between perceived parental technoference and hyperactivity and attention difficulties varied from small to large across time points, with correlation coefficients ranging from .06 to .27.
The within-family cross-lag associations showed variability depending on the type of mental health problems. For anxiety, higher anxiety at ages 10 and 11 was associated with higher levels of perceived parental technoference, although the effect size was small. However, the inverse association was not observed. For attention problems and hyperactivity, there was some evidence of an association between perceived parental technoference and these mental health problems, particularly between the second and third time points, although the effect size was small.
Gender differences in the associations between perceived parental technoference and mental health were also examined. The analysis revealed some differences in the strength of the associations between girls and boys. However, the overlapping 95% confidence intervals suggested that these differences were not statistically significant.
Conclusions
In summary, this longitudinal study used robust methods to examine the reciprocal relationship between parental technoference and adolescent mental health.
Results showed that higher adolescent anxiety predicted increased parental technoference, whereas higher parental technoference predicted more adolescent attention difficulties and hyperactivity. Gender differences were minimal.
These findings underscore the need for family-focused discussions about screen use in healthcare settings and emphasize the potential benefits of reducing parental technoference for adolescent mental health.
