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. 2025 Jul 9:16:1596219.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1596219. eCollection 2025.

"Just a second, mommy's here": the impact of mothers' smartphone use on children's affect regulation and the quality of mother-child interactions

Aleksandra Mikić  1   2 , Sarah Bergmann  1   3 , Georgina Perejoan Martí  1 , Annette M Klein  1
Affiliations

"Just a second, mommy's here": the impact of mothers' smartphone use on children's affect regulation and the quality of mother-child interactions

Aleksandra Mikić et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Introduction: 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.

Methods: 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).

Results: 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.

Discussion: 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.

Keywords: emotional availability; infant affect regulation; maternal responsiveness; media multitasking; mother–infant interaction; smartphone use; technoference.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Main effects of phase on positive (A) and negative (B) affect scores. Error bars show standard error.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Interaction effect phase × condition on negative affect score. FP, free play phase, IP, interruption phase.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Main effects of phase on sensitivity (A), structuring (B), nonintrusiveness (C) and child involvement (D). Error bars show standard error.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Main effects of phase on frequency of responses in % (A) and latency of responses in seconds (B). Error bars show standard error.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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