Mothers' phubbing behaviors and parental role: A cross-sectional correlational study

Abstract

Objective: This study was conducted to determine the relationship between mothers' phubbing behaviors and the parental role.

Methods: The study was conducted as a cross-sectional correlational design with the mothers of 340 babies hospitalized in the pediatric clinics of a training and research hospital in Çorum between March 2023 and September 2023. An introductory information form, the Generic Scale of Phubbing and the Self-Perception of Parental Scale were used in the study. Mothers filled out the data collection forms face to face within 15-20 minutes.

Results: It was found that the mean age was 29.65 ± 4.38 years, the mean hours of using social media per day was 6.86 ± 1.64, and the mean hours spent with the baby was 20.40 ± 3.78 for mothers. There was a negative relationship between The Generic Scale of Phubbing- Interpersonal Conflict sub-dimension mean score (-0.264; <0.001), Problem Acknowledgement sub-dimension mean score (-0.118; 0.030) and total mean score (-0.145; 0.007) with the Self-Perception of Parental Scale-Competence sub-dimension mean score.

Conclusion: This study found a relationship between mothers' phubbing behavior and their parental roles. It suggests investigating this important issue with different variables.

Implications to practice: Pediatric nurses can provide training to reduce mothers' phubbing behaviors or develop practices to change phubbing behaviors.

Keywords: Behavior; Child; Mother; Parenting; Phubbing.