Texting while Parenting
Abstract
Child development research suggests that using phones while caring for children can be problematic, but limited prior work in this space makes defining appropriate use challenging. We conducted the first exploration of whether adults feel pressure to limit phone use in this context and whether they choose to do so. Through mixed methods, we collected data from 466 adult caregivers at playgrounds. We found that phone use was a small part of playground time, yet a notable source of guilt. Adults engaged in systematic and specific phone-use and phone-non-use behaviors in order to prioritize their children above themselves. Our results indicate that caregiver values and self-control together predict behavior and can be used to model phone use in this context. Users' mixed success with engaging in intentional periods of non-use suggests that a design agenda which prioritizes cycles of engagement, disengagement, and re-engagement may be of value to this group.
Cite this
Alexis Hiniker, Kiley Sobel, Hyewon Suh, Yi-Chen Sung, Charlotte P. Lee, Julie A. Kientz (2015). Texting while Parenting. CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. https://doi.org/10.1145/2702123.2702199
@article{alexis2015texting,
title = {Texting while Parenting},
author = {Hiniker, Alexis and Sobel, Kiley and Suh, Hyewon and Sung, Yi-Chen and Lee, Charlotte P. and Kientz, Julie A.},
year = {2015},
journal = {CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
doi = {10.1145/2702123.2702199}
}Citations in this library
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