JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Smartphones are deeply embedded in everyday family life, shaping routines and leisure activities. While parental smartphone use in the presence of children may divert attention and affect children’s well-being, it is not inherently harmful. Previous research often frames this behavior as phubbing or technoference, terms that carry a negative connotation and may bias interpretations. Additionally, many studies rely on self-report or cross-sectional designs, which can limit nuanced insights.

Objective:

This study examined how parental smartphone use in the presence of the child relates to children’s affective well-being using a 10-day experience sampling design.

Methods:

A 10-day experience sampling study was conducted with parents (N=131), who repeatedly reported their smartphone use in the presence of their child, their child’s positive and negative affect, and perceived threats to the child’s fundamental needs. Parental smartphone use was assessed using both self-reports and device-logged data. Data were analyzed using multilevel models to distinguish between between-person and within-person associations.

Results:

At the between-person level, higher self-reported parental smartphone use was associated with greater perceived child need threat for mothers (b=0.58, 95% CI 0.30-0.86; P=.001), but not for fathers. Similarly, higher maternal smartphone use was associated with higher child negative affect (b=0.25, 95% CI 0.08-0.41; P=.004), whereas no such association was observed for fathers. At the within-person level, on days when parents reported higher smartphone use than usual, they also reported greater perceived child need threat (mothers: b=0.20, 95% CI 0.09-0.31; P<.001; fathers: b=0.10, 95% CI 0.00-0.20; P=.046). No significant associations were found between parental smartphone use and children’s positive affect at either level. Furthermore, none of these associations emerged when smartphone use was assessed using device-logged measures.

Conclusions:

Taken together, these findings suggest that perceived child need threat may be more closely linked to parents’ subjective experiences and interpretations of their smartphone use rather than to objectively measured smartphone behavior itself. This discrepancy underscores the importance of distinguishing between subjective and objective assessments of parental smartphone use and highlights the need for future research that integrates children’s perspectives and interactional context to clarify when and how parental smartphone use may matter for children’s well-being.