Busy parents may find many conveniences in phones and other mobile devices, but the daily digital notifications from these screens may also stress them out.
Parents received an average of almost 300 mobile notifications per day between 2020-2021, a small Michigan Medicine study suggests.
And when those buzzing pings – whether from work emails, messages or other apps – prompted parents to pick up their phones, they experienced greater daily parental stress.
“We know that parents of young kids are often multi-tasking. The disruptions from screens has added an additional layer to that challenge of trying to respond to multiple demands at the same time,” said lead author Tiffany Munzer, M.D., developmental behavioral pediatrician at University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.
“Parents are often juggling parenting and home life with work and other responsibilities simultaneously. It makes sense that feeling pulled away by phones may bring additional stress.”
The study involved 62 parents of 62 children ages four to six and took place during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Parents’ average age was 37 years old.
Mobile notifications were only associated with greater stress if they required parents to pick up their devices more frequently, Munzer says.
On average, parents picked up their phones 93 times.
