Parental Technoference Linked to Rising Mental Health Issues in Adolescents

In modern society, technology has become an inseparable part of the family. Families benefit from the communication, scheduling, and entertainment capabilities of smartphones, tablets, and other digital devices. Despite the advantages, regular technology use can also cause communication breakdowns between parents and children of all ages.This phenomenon receives the name technoference, and it is a topic of rather little academic concern (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Perceived Parental Distraction by Technology and Mental Health Among Emerging Adolescents

Go to source). The recent research focuses on ‘technoference’ – parents’ technology interference in interactions with their children and its harmful effects on the mental health of adolescents. The survey, which was conducted on 1,303 middle and high school students from the years 2020 and 2022, discovered some appalling correlations between the parents’ use of digital devices and the psychological well-being of children aged 9 to 11 years.

Impact of Technoference

It seems that the study endorses the two-way track between parental technoference and the mental health of teenagers. The use of technology by parents may further increase the mental health challenges of their progeny while these issues might lead them to consume more technology. For instance, parents may adopt their computers as a coping strategy, elevating their technoference.

Gender Disparity in Technoference

All parents technoference practically affected the well-being of both girls and boys. It means that certainly some aspects of parental use of technology have negative influences on children and they are shared between the genders.

First of all, the parent’s technology use has been the main issue affecting the child’s mental health. Since their kid problems are worse, these parents are also pushed to use the gadgets even more. For instance, if they are diagnosed with anxiety, parents might check out their gadgets in response to this, therefore, the child’s technoference worsens.

The study was conducted during COVID-19 pandemic, which points out that future studies need to be more inclusive and engage various populations and people. The limitation of the research includes, the fact that some adolescents overestimate positive habits and refuse to answer some of the questions.

Some of them may have been undergoing depression, but they were not fully diagnosed and their depression condition was not thoroughly assessed. This should be looked at as a limitation of the study.

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Parents should pay attention to the quality of their technology usage and the quality of their interactions with the children so that the children can feel the mental and emotional support that they crave.

Reference:

1. Perceived Parental Distraction by Technology and Mental Health Among Emerging Adolescents - (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2822421)

Source-Medindia