Parents Engrossed in their Cell Phones Pay Less Attention to Children during Meals: Study

Parents spend more time on cell phones than with kids during meals, according to a recent study.

Researchers from the Boston Medical Center conducted an undercover observation of families in almost 15 restaurants across Boston to study the behavior of children when their parents got busy with cell phones. They looked at almost 55 parents and caregivers of whom 40 were closely observed while dining with their children and took down detailed notes on how often the parents used their mobile, paid attention to the children and how the children responded while the parents got busy with their devices. To determine absorption rates they noted the number of times the devices were used, whether they made eye contact with their children when they were on call, responded to their bad behavior and paid close attention to them.

Almost 70 percent of them used their phone at least once during the meals and one third were reported completely absorbed in their mobile devices during their meals. Most of these parents responded harshly when their children misbehaved. The authors noted that one mother pushed a boy's hand away while he tried lifting her face off the tablet screen and other kicked a child's foot under the table.

Some parents of children with unruly behavior used their devices to play videos to calm them while others were did not respond and remained absorbed in their devices.

Dr. Jenny Radesky, study author and pediatrician at Boston Medical Center said," We chose to observe caregivers and children during meals because this is a daily routine in which face-to-face caregiver-child interactions are considered beneficial. We did find it striking that during caregiver absorption with devices, some children appeared to accept the lack of engagement and entertained themselves, whereas others showed increasing bids for attention that were often answered with negative parent responses " reports Los Angeles Times.

The authors advise against paying too much attention to these devices. Dr. Elaine Schulte from Cleveland Clinic said, "Children really need that interaction and the best thing for developing minds is to build that relationship where the parent is looking at the child, where the child is looking at the parent, they're engaging in conversation. It's not a time to withdraw, close-in, and do your own thing," reports abcnews.        

More information is available in the Journal Pediatrics.