Mikić Aleksandra, Bergmann Sarah, Perejoan Martí Georgina, Klein Annette M
International Psychoanalytic University Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2025 Jul 9;16:1596219. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1596219. eCollection 2025.
The ubiquity of smartphone devices in our everyday lives has been widely recognized as a potential challenge to the quality of parent-child interactions. The aim of this study was to experimentally examine the effects of mothers' smartphone use on their children's affect regulation and on the quality of mother-child interactions, indicated by emotional availability of the dyad and maternal responsiveness. Additionally, we investigated the associations between mothers' behaviors to maintain contact with their children during smartphone use and their children's affect regulation.
The experiment consisted of two counterbalanced phases: the free play phase and the interruption phase, in which mothers were replying to standardized text messages in the presence of their children. The sample comprised 52 mothers and their children aged 5 to 6 months (24 female).
Infants expressed less positive affect in the interruption phase than in the free play phase, as well as more negative affect in the interruption phase when the free play phase preceded the interruption phase. In addition, the mothers showed less sensitivity and responded to less infants' signals and in a slower way in the interruption phase than in the free play phase. Moreover, mothers showed less optimal structuring, and children showed less well involvement of their mothers in the interruption phase than in the free play phase. Lastly, more children's negative affect was associated with a shorter duration of mothers' smartphone use and more active mothers' behaviors to maintain contact with their children during the smartphone use.
These results suggest that, although mothers adapt smartphone use based on their children's affective response, mothers' repeated smartphone use negatively impacts their children's affect regulation and the quality of the mother-child interactions, with potentially negative consequences for the children's social-emotional development.
智能手机设备在我们日常生活中的无处不在，已被广泛认为是对亲子互动质量的一个潜在挑战。本研究的目的是通过实验来检验母亲使用智能手机对其孩子情感调节以及对亲子互动质量的影响，亲子互动质量通过二元组的情感可及性和母亲的反应性来衡量。此外，我们还研究了母亲在使用智能手机期间与孩子保持联系的行为与其孩子情感调节之间的关联。
该实验包括两个平衡阶段：自由玩耍阶段和干扰阶段，在干扰阶段母亲要当着孩子的面回复标准化短信。样本包括52位母亲及其5至6个月大的孩子（24名女孩）。
婴儿在干扰阶段比在自由玩耍阶段表现出更少的积极情绪，并且当自由玩耍阶段先于干扰阶段时，婴儿在干扰阶段表现出更多的消极情绪。此外，母亲在干扰阶段比在自由玩耍阶段表现出更低的敏感性，对婴儿信号的反应更少且更慢。而且，母亲在干扰阶段表现出的最佳结构化更少，孩子在干扰阶段表现出母亲的参与度不如自由玩耍阶段高。最后，更多孩子的消极情绪与母亲使用智能手机的时间较短以及母亲在使用智能手机期间与孩子保持联系的行为更积极有关。
这些结果表明，尽管母亲会根据孩子的情感反应来调整智能手机的使用，但母亲反复使用智能手机会对孩子的情感调节和亲子互动质量产生负面影响，可能会对孩子的社会情感发展产生潜在的负面后果。
