Greater mobile device-prompted phone pickups are associated with daily parent stress
Open accessAbstract
Aim: No studies have examined notifications as they relate to parent stress. We aimed to examine associations between objective daily mobile device notifications and pickups with daily parenting stress. Methods: This was a within‐ and between‐subjects, cross‐sectional study that took place from 2020 to 2021. The study occurred during the coronavirus disease of 2019 pandemic. Data were collected in a low‐contact home visit. This study included 62 parents of 62 children aged 48–71 months. Parents downloaded a passive sensing app on their Android mobile devices collecting data on duration, device notifications and device pickups. Parents completed an end‐of‐day stress survey for 4 days. We used random effects models to examine the variation of daily stress with smartphone duration, notification frequency, pickup frequency and device‐initiated pickups, adjusting for covariates. Results: Parents were on average 37.3 years old (SD ± 5.7) and were predominantly mothers (82.3%). On average, parents received 293 daily notifications and picked up their phones 93 times. Duration of smartphone use and notification frequency were not associated with daily stress. Device‐initiated pickups were associated with daily parent stress. Conclusion: When notifications prompted parents to pick up their phones more often, parents experienced greater stress.
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More daily notifications requiring caregiver engagement are linked to stress, particularly work-related ones.
“Indeed, greater notifications per day that require caregiver engagement are associated with stress, especially when notifications pertain to work.63”
From Digital Ecosystems, Children, and Adolescents: Technical Report (2026) · cites this paper as [63]
The Discussion reports greater parent stress when notifications prompted more device pickups, supporting the caregiver-engagement part of the claim. It also reports no association between notifications from different apps and parent stress, so the claim that work-related notifications are especially linked to stress is not supported by this study. The Introduction mentions negative emotions from productivity notifications, but attributes that finding to prior work. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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Digital Ecosystems, Children, and Adolescents: Technical Report
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- Authors
- Munzer, T. G., Miller, A. L., Weeks, H. M., Kaciroti, N., & Radesky, J.
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan (US)
- Corresponding author
- Munzer, Tiffany G.
- Venue
- Acta Paediatrica
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2024-05-02
- Volume
- 113
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 1868-1875
- ISSN
- 0365-1436 (ISSN-L)
- 0803-5253
- 1651-2227
- PMC
- PMC11239283
- OpenAlex
- W4396620380
- Cited by
- 5
- References
- 29
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1
- FWCI
- 6.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Acta Paediatrica (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Deep Blue (University of Michigan) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (K23HD092626, K23HD105988)
- University of Michigan (CTSA: UL1TR002240)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Child Development and Digital Technology
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Personal Information Management and User Behavior
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Keywords
- parental stress, smartphone use duration, passive sensing, COVID-19 pandemic, parenting
- MeSH terms
- Smartphone, COVID-19, Adult, Child, Preschool, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Male, Parents, Stress, Psychological, Parenting, Cell Phone
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