New University of Canterbury (UC) research is giving children a voice in understanding how technology interruptions affect parent-child relationships.
The paper ‘Distracted, Interrupted, or Disrupted: A Pathway Model of Technoference’, led by Associate Professor Cara Swit from UC’s School of Health Sciences, explores how technologies such as smartphones can interfere with parent-child interactions.
“Technoference comes from two words: technology and interference. It is exactly that — the interference of technology in interpersonal relationships,” Associate Professor Swit says.
“Parent-child relationships and interactions are fundamentally the most important interactions a child can have. They set the foundation for social interactions with adults and peers, and support brain development.
“However, we live in a completely digitally saturated world. Our devices are fundamental to leisure, entertainment, work — everything. It is not realistic to remove technology and interruptions completely.
“The research to date has often lumped together terms like disruptions, interruptions and distractions. We wanted to distinguish between different types of interference.”
Assoc Prof Swit says her research distinguishes between distractions, interruptions and disruptions. At the dinner table, a distraction might be a parent briefly noticing a phone notification before returning to the conversation. An interruption would be the parent leaving the table to respond to the notification, bringing the interaction to a halt, but resuming the interaction later on. A disruption occurs when the phone becomes a regular part of dinner time, and repeated interruptions become normalised within the family routine.
“The way children interpret interruptions differs considerably depending on their age, but also on the quality of the interruption,” she says.
“For an adult, picking up a phone for a few seconds and then coming back makes logical sense. But for a young child, that interaction may have completely stopped.
“Children don’t just pick up where they left off like a parent typically would.
“Children make different judgements about different types of interference. If it’s a phone call, children often assume it must be really important. But if a parent is on social media or texting, children tend to see that as much less acceptable.”
Assoc Prof Swit says there are a range of views in this field, but her work aims take a balanced and practical approach. Rather than adding to pressure on parents to be fully present 100% of the time, she says the focus should be on recognising the realities of family life today and supporting parents with realistic ways to be more mindful and intentional with device use.
Assoc Prof Swit says one practical strategy is to create small pockets of intentional digital-free time, such as at the dinner table or during 10 minutes of bedtime reading.
She says another strategy is to help children understand when an interruption needs to happen.
“Children tell us they cope better with interruptions when they know what is happening, rather than when the interaction suddenly stops. For example, a parent could say, ‘I need to take this call, I’m going to check it and then I’ll come back to you.’”
Assoc Prof Swit’s work is part of wider UC research through the Digital Media Research Network, funded by UC’s Child Well-being Research Institute. Working alongside Dr Megan Gath and Dr Jen Smith, Associate Professor Swit says the network aims to support a more balanced, evidence-based conversation about digital media and family life.
“The Digital Media Research Network is really committed to translation. There’s no point doing this research if it doesn’t mean anything to our communities, or if families and practitioners can’t access and use it. Through the network, we’re developing practical resources such as posters, magnets and social media content that help families think about device use, connection and what realistic, intentional digital media use can look like in everyday family life.”
She says further research is needed to better understand how technoference affects parents, as well as children. While her work focuses on how children experience parent’s device use, she says the same pathway model could be applied in the other direction, looking at how children’s device use may interrupt interactions with parents and influence wider family relationships.
The paper ‘Distracted, Interrupted, or Disrupted: A Pathway Model of Technoference’ can be found here.
