In a recent study published in the JAMA Network Open, a group of researchers examined the prospective associations between perceived technoference (parental digital interruptions) and mental health symptoms in emerging adolescents.

Background 

Digital technology is integral to modern family life, aiding communication, scheduling, and entertainment. However, routine use of devices can disrupt parent-child interactions, a concept known as technoference.

Studies show parents often spend significant time on smartphones, leading to decreased engagement with their children and potential negative impacts on child development, including mental health difficulties like anxiety, depression, hyperactivity, and inattention. While previous research links parental technoference to child mental health issues, most studies are cross-sectional, limiting our understanding of causality.

Further research is needed to clarify the directionality of the relationship between parental technoference and emerging adolescents’ mental health to inform prevention and intervention strategies better.

About the study

The present study used data from the All Our Families cohort, a prospective study on maternal and child health in Alberta, Calgary, and Canada. Pregnant women were recruited between 2008 and 2010, with 84% agreeing to participate. The analysis focused on data from emerging adolescents collected during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, involving 1,303 participants. These adolescents were similar to nonparticipants in family income, anxiety, depression, and hyperactivity, though they showed slightly lower attention difficulties.

Mothers completed online questionnaires in three waves from May 2020 to January 2022 and provided consent for their children’s participation. Adolescents aged around 9.7, 10.4, and 11.1 years during the waves gave assent. The study was ethically approved and followed guidelines for survey and cohort studies.

Parental technoference was measured using two questions adapted from existing scales, with high internal consistency across time points. Adolescents’ mental health symptoms like 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 employed to assess both cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between parental technoference and mental health symptoms, considering within-family associations and traitlike factors, with gender differences explored through multigroup analysis. Data were analyzed in December 2023.

Study results 

The study included 1,303 emerging adolescents with a mean 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 gender fluid, transgender, and agender. The remaining 275 participants did not report their gender. 

For the main analysis, models were developed for each mental health difficulty. The RI-CLPM was used to assess the relationships. For anxiety, hyperactivity, and attention difficulties, the best model was the standard RI-CLPM, which did not impose constraints on autoregressive paths. However, the RI-CLPM model for depression could not be estimated due to negative variances, indicating that the model could not be successfully computed with the given parameters. Despite this, the depression model by gender was successfully estimated and is reported in supplementary tables.

The study examined both between-family (time-invariant) and within-family (time-varying) associations between perceived parental technoference and the mental health difficulties of emerging adolescents.

The between-family analysis revealed moderate correlations between the random intercepts, suggesting that adolescents who perceived higher levels of parental technoference generally exhibited higher levels of mental health difficulties, with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.17 to 0.19. Within-family cross-sectional correlations were most consistent for anxiety, with moderate correlations across all study times (ranging from 0.21 to 0.28). The correlations between perceived parental technoference and hyperactivity and attention difficulties varied from small to large depending on the time point, with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.06 to 0.27.

The within-family cross-lag associations showed variability depending on the type of mental health difficulty. For anxiety, higher levels of anxiety at ages 10 and 11 were associated with higher levels of perceived parental technoference, with small effect sizes. However, the reverse association was not observed. For attention difficulties and hyperactivity, there was some evidence of an association from perceived parental technoference to these mental health difficulties, particularly between the second and third time points, with small effect sizes observed.

Gender differences in the associations between perceived parental technoference and mental health were also examined. The analysis revealed some differences in the magnitude of associations between girls and boys. However, the overlapping 95% confidence intervals suggested that these differences were not statistically meaningful.

Conclusions

To summarize, this longitudinal study used robust methods to explore the bidirectional relationship between parental technoference and adolescent mental health.

Results showed that higher adolescent anxiety predicted increased parental technoference, while higher parental technoference predicted more attention difficulties and hyperactivity in adolescents. Gender differences were minimal.

These findings highlight the need for family-focused discussions on-screen use in healthcare, emphasizing the potential benefits of reducing parental technoference for adolescent mental health.