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The US study of 170 families examined how often digital devices interrupt parent to child interactions – a phenomenon known as ‘technoference’, and whether this affects their child’s behaviour.
Almost half (48 per cent) of the parents in the study reported at least three daily incidents of technoference while engaged in an activity or conversation with their children, while a quarter said it happened about twice a day.
Parents then rated their child’s behaviour by answering questions about how often they 'whined, sulked, got frustrated, were oversensitive, restless or hyperactive and had hot tempers or temper tantrums'.
The researchers from the University of Michigan C.S Mott Children's Hospital and Illinois State University compared parents’ answers and found episodes of children’s challenging behaviour were more common among those parents who admitted to using digital devices while engaging with their children.
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