The term “phubbing” was conceived several years ago to describe the modern-day phenomenon of a person ignoring the social setting in front of them in favor of their phone. That act has long-term negative effects when parents do it around their children, according to new research.
A study titled, “Mommy, do you love your phone more than me?”, published in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Psychology in June, found that parents and caregivers’ attachment to screens can exacerbate anxiety and insecurity in children and teens.
The researchers queried 600 young people in the US, ages 12 to 17, and detailed accounts “with adolescents reporting that parental attention to screens during bids for connection left them feeling devalued, dismissed, or unimportant”.
Smartphones have only been widely available for two decades; Apple debuted the first iPhone in 2007. But since then, the devices have exploded in popularity, with 98% of US adults now owning one, according to the research group Pew. While the field of research into people’s use of smartphones is relatively new, there’s a growing consensus within the scientific community that points to negative effects, especially on children.
An array of studies have found that teens are especially prone to compulsive, extreme use of their phones and the social media apps downloaded there, such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat. Thousands of lawsuits have been brought against the social media companies alleging the apps were designed to be addictive and led to kids being harmed.
Scholarship on the effects of parents’ attachment to gadgets, however, has been less studied.
The new research comes on top of a handful of similar studies that found parents’ smartphone use to be detrimental to children. A 2023 study in China concluded that parental phone attachment made children more prone to screen addiction. A 2024 study in the Journal of Pediatrics, a US-based publication, found that parents’ “phubbing” led to distant relationships with kids, who were often more whiny, sulky and prone to temper tantrums.
Don Grant, the lead author of the Frontiers in Psychology study, told Bloomberg that a parent’s phone use can cause a child to have “insecure attachment”, which is said to create a lower self-esteem and lack of confidence. It “could really unfavorably impact their attachment security, which they will carry for life”, Grant said.
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The study’s authors acknowledge that not all phone-distracted parents will lead to kids being insecure and anxious. Instead, they say, the research is meant to highlight adolescents’ perceptions of parental attention when it comes to device use.
