Maternal Mental Representations of the Child and Mobile Phone Use During Parent-Child Mealtimes.
Jenny Radesky, Christy Leung, Danielle Appugliese and 3 others
PMID 29485515WHAT IT FOUND
Mothers who saw their child as difficult were more likely to actively use a phone during meals.
At a structured eating task, phone use was also linked with less rich and sensitive views of the child.
Key findings
0147 mothers (24.1%) actively used a mobile device at least once during family mealtimes, 44 (22.6%) during the structured eating task, and 18 (9%) used a device in both.
02After adjustment, active maternal mobile device use during family mealtimes was positively associated with the Child Difficulty subscale.
03After adjustment, active maternal mobile device use during the structured eating task was negatively associated with Richness of Perceptions and Caregiving Sensitivity, marginally associated with Parenting Reflectivity, and positively associated with Child Difficulty.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study was observational, so it cannot show whether maternal views of the child lead to phone use, phone use leads to less sensitive views, or both reflect another factor. The sample came from Head Start families whose mothers had not attained a college degree, so results may not generalise to other income, education, or community groups. Only female caregivers were included, so the findings do not address father-child relationships. The final analytic sample was 195 mothers, smaller than the original cohort of 301 caregivers, because complete interview data and both eating recordings were required. The study did not assess what mothers were doing on their devices, such as social media, calls, or news checking. Some mothers knew they were being videotaped, which may have reduced device use. The outcome was active device use coded from videos, not a tested intervention or child outcome.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not include a conflicts-of-interest statement. The journal metadata lists research support from NIH extramural funding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that removing phones from meals will improve the parent-child relationship. The study measured associations only. It cannot show whether phone use caused less sensitive views, whether difficult child views led to phone use, or whether both came from another factor.