2024/09/06 by Deuter, Christian E, Klein, Annette M., Mikić, Aleksandra +1
#FOS: Psychology #Heart rate #Mother-child interaction #Multitasking #Physiological synchrony #Psychology #Psychophysiology #Respiratory sinus arrhythmia #Smartphone use #Social and Behavioral Sciences #Technoference
paper · doi:10.17605/osf.io/m27rw
In infancy, children's affective and physiological states are regulated predominantly by a primary caregiver, usually a mother. Whether this regulation succeeds depends largely on the quality of the mother-child interactions. Nowadays, many people are used to being constantly connected to others via smartphones. Therefore, it is to be expected that the mother-child interactions are frequently interrupted and therefore of a lower quality with possibly negative consequences for children’s affect regulation, (for review, see Braune-Krickau et al., 2021; Mikić & Klein, 2022). In addition, findings of two experimental studies indicated that temporary interruptions caused by mothers´ smartphone use leads to an increase in heart rate (Porter et al., 2024; Rozenblatt-Perkal et al., 2022) and a decrease in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (Porter et al., 2024) in infants and toddlers. However, effects of mothers´ portable digital device use on their children's physiological regulation are still insufficiently explored. Apart from that, some findings indicate multitasking is stressful (Park, Salsbury, Corbett & Aiello, 2013; Wetherell and Carter, 2014), and that mothers´ stress and their usage of portable digital devices in the presence of their children are associated (e.g. Thomée et al., 2011). Therefore, our aim is to experimentally investigate whether mothers´ smartphone use affects both mothers´ and infants´ physiological regulation in presence of each other, namely heart rate and respiratory sinus arrhythmia. Method: The sample consisted of 52 mother-child dyads with infants aged 5 to 6 months. The experiment comprised two counterbalanced phases: 1) the free play phase and 2) the interruption phase, in which mothers were responding to standardised text messages via smartphone in the presence of their children. The ECG data of mothers and infants were collected during the experimental task. In addition, the experiment was video recorded for later coding, with a focus on mothers´ behaviors to maintain contact with their children while using the smartphone. Using a mixed-design ANOVA with the within-subjects factor phase (free play phase vs. interruption phase) and the between-subjects factor phase order, we will investigate if children's and mothers´ heart rate and respiratory sinus arrhythmia differ between the two experimental phases. Using correlation analyses, we will investigate if the frequency of mothers´ behaviors to maintain contact with their children while using the smartphone are associated with mothers’ physiological reactivity. Moreover, we will exploratively investigate whether there are differences in mother-infant heart rate and respiratory sinus arrhythmia synchrony between the two phases and explore further research questions (see below).