Maternal Smartphone Use and Infant Socioemotional Outcomes: A Differential Susceptibility Perspective - 7. PROJECT SUMMARY Maternal smartphone use and infant socioemotional outcomes: A differential susceptibility perspective PI - McDaniel Responsive caregiving and synchronous parent-infant interactions are foundational for the development of healthy emotion regulation skills during infancy. Thus, a key target for early intervention is identifying factors that enhance or undermine parents’ capacity for responsive caregiving and synchrony, as well as identifying which dyads are differentially susceptible to disruptions and therefore most likely to benefit from tailored intervention approaches. Smartphone use by mothers has become increasingly common during caregiving of infants, and a growing body of evidence illustrates that the presence and use of devices can lead to distraction in parenting, which subsequently disrupts critical parts of responsive caregiving. However, the parental experience with smartphone use reflects a paradox: while devices may disrupt parent-child interactions and cause feelings of guilt and stress (i.e., smartphone-related distress), they may also provide meaningful benefits such as experiences of social support and parent mood regulation (i.e., smartphone-related empowerment). The proposed study will provide the information necessary to clarify when phone use is empowering versus distressing and for whom these effects are most pronounced. This will be accomplished through an intensive longitudinal study of 400 mothers and their infants. At 2, 4, 6, 9, and 12 months of infant age, mothers will complete monthly surveys, bursts of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) surveys and smartphone use tracking (via an app) across 8 consecutive days, and mother-infant interaction observations. Specific aims include: (Aim 1) To determine how mothers’ typical levels of smartphone empowerment and distress relate to maternal emotional well-being, mother-infant interaction quality, and infant socioemotional development across the first year; (Aim 2) to examine whether mothers' differential susceptibility to smartphone use moderates associations between typical levels of smartphone empowerment and distress and emotional well-being; (Aim 3) to identify maternal and infant characteristics that predict mothers’ differential susceptibility to smartphone experiences. Although smartphones are deeply embedded in the landscape of early parenting, the field lacks rigorous, longitudinal evidence to clarify smartphones’ dual role as a source of empowerment and distress, as well as to understand differential susceptibility to the effects of phones on maternal well-being, parent-infant interactions, and infant outcomes. Findings from the research will ultimately inform targeted, evidence-based recommendations that optimize parental well-being and infant outcomes. Thus, findings will have direct relevance to parents and practitioners, assisting mothers with developing healthier digital habits, increasing the quality of caregiving of infants, and improving infant socioemotional development.
