Technoference: Parental Photo-Taking Behaviors and Parent-Child Play Interactions

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to investigate technology interference (technoference) in parent-child relationships in a play context. Using prior research on technoference in parent child relationships as a base, this study explored parental photo taking behaviors and how that impacted the parent's ability to be present and engage with the child during the play interaction. We looked at how much the parent remembered about both focal and environmental aspects of the play episode and how much social bidding the parent and child displayed. Results showed no statistically significant results in the regression models. However, mean level differences suggested that in the presence of technology parents remembered fewer environmental aspects of the play interaction. Similarly, mean level differences suggested that children displayed more social bidding when their parent engaged with technology, suggesting that children are aware of their parent's divided attention. These findings add to the growing body of technoference research by shedding light onto the implications of the presence of technology on the user, in our case the parent.