How much do parents actually use their smartphones? Pilot study comparing self-report to passive sensing

Abstract

Parent smartphone use has been associated with decreased responsiveness to children,(1) fewer verbal and nonverbal interactions,(2) and higher ratings of child externalizing behavior.(3) However, existing studies are limited by use of brief (10-15 minute) observations of parents using smartphones(1, 4) or rely on parent self-report,(3) which may be biased by social desirability. In addition, self-report of smartphone use may be inaccurate due to the brief, intermittent ways users interact with mobile devices,(5) which makes recall difficult.(6) The purpose of this pilot study was to improve upon these measurement limitations by implementing a novel approach-passive mobile sensing-in order to objectively assess parent smartphone use over several days. Passive mobile sensing harnesses data already collected by mobile devices, such as application ("app") or battery usage, and generates usage logs that are transmitted to cloud-based servers or can be emailed to research teams. This Users may view, print, copy, and download text and data-mine the content in such documents, for the purposes of academic research, subject always to the full Conditions of use:

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Discrepancies Between Logged and Self- Reported Digital Media Use

“…Following communication delays, a single study (Yuan et al, 2019) was included in the analysis after the publication of a preprint containing the preliminary results of the metaanalyses. As a robustness check, we considered the summary effect size for usage correlations with (r = 0.38, 95% CI [0.33, 0.42], p < 0.001) and without (r = 0.38, 95% CI [0.33, 0.42], p < 0.001) the two additional effect sizes included from this study.…”

Use of passive sensing to quantify adolescent mobile device usage: Feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary validation of the eMoodie application

“…This method can provide objective data on smartphone use and more specific details as to what type of media (e.g., social media versus gaming) is being used by adolescents. For example, Yuan et al (2019) described the development and utility of a passive sensing app for measuring adults' (i.e., parents') smartphone screen time (SST) and, recently, Radesky et al (2020) piloted an app to measure mobile device usage in young children. Additionally, the Comprehensive Assessment of Family Media Exposure (CAFE) Consortium has proposed a novel approach for assessing a multitude of digital media use among family members, including a passive sensing feature (see Barr et al, 2020 for this innovative approach).…”

“…Although there is compelling support for using passive sensing techniques to quantify adults' (Yuan et al, 2019) and young children's device use (Radesky et al, 2020), there is a need to examine this methodology in older children and adolescents. Indeed, besides these examples, passive sensing to quantify mobile device has only been piloted in adults (Bagot et al, 2018).…”

Infants’ response to a mobile phone modified still‐face paradigm: Links to maternal behaviors and beliefs regarding technoference

“…It is possible that beliefs regarding the appropriateness of mobile phone use while with infants may be a better reflection of parents' actual mobile phone use while with infants. Future researchers should explore these relationships in comparison to passive sensing (e.g., applications installed on the phone that track real-time mobile phone use, Yuan et al, 2019) or network reports (e.g., some networks track real-time cell phone use and will provide those reports to researchers) of actual mobile phone use.…”