Early childhood technoference threat is predicted by authoritative parenting, but not parental knowledge of digital risks.

Frequent disruption to parent-child interactions by technology (technoference) significantly impacts problematic behaviours and socioemotional development. Currently unknown is whether this is a novel challenge presented to all parents by the proliferation of technology, or representative of existing maladaptive parenting practices. Two- hundred and fifteen UK parents (Mage = 36 years) self-reported parenting style (i.e., authoritative, authoritarian, permissive), technoference, problematic technology use, and perception of digital risks. Results indicated higher authoritative parenting styles predicted reduced technoference (b = -.29), and problematic technology use was associated with increased technoference and higher use of both permissive and authoritarian parenting styles. For the first time, prevalence of technoference is shown to disproportionately threaten a subset of children. Supplementary materials: [https://osf.io/b6rn3/?view_only=5b422beef2ef4aea95c28e28e55f1a5e]