Mothers’ Smartphone Use, Phone-Related Distress and Empowerment, and Maternal and Infant Mood and Behavior: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Approach

Although parents often use phones while around their infants, little research has looked at how this relates to mothers’ mood and their perceptions of their infant and their parenting on a momentary basis. The current study captured maternal phone use and perceptions in real time, namely perceptions of phone-related distress and empowerment, particularly during periods when mothers were with their infant. Participants included 160 mothers of 2-month-old children. Measures included objective passive sensing of smartphone use and ecological momentary assessment (EMA) across 5 days to investigate associations between maternal phone use, maternal mood, and perceptions of infant and parenting behaviors. Overall, objective phone use was often not associated with maternal mood or perceptions of infant or parenting behavior. In contrast, mothers’ subjective experiences of their phone use were related to these outcomes. For example, perceiving technoference or feeling worse about oneself or one’s parenting due to phone use was linked to greater maternal emotional distress and loneliness, as well as perceptions of delayed responsiveness, more infant distress, and lower infant happiness. In contrast, phone-related empowerment showed relatively few associations with maternal or infant outcomes, although empowerment may accumulate over the day to contribute to lower maternal emotional distress. Distinguishing between phone-related distress and empowerment may be especially valuable for guiding future research and future messaging to mothers. Encouraging greater self-awareness and mindfulness around phone use may help mothers engage with their devices in ways that support, rather than undermine, their mental health and parenting.