Parent Distraction with Technology and Child Social Competence during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Parental Emotional Stability

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to test the possible moderating role of parents’ emotional stability on the relationship between parent distraction with technology and child social competence during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data used in the study were collected in May 2020 when extensive restrictive measures, labeled as lockdown, were present in Croatia. Data on technoference in parenting, parents’ problematic phone tendencies, and child social competence were collected using an online questionnaire from parents (n = 281) of children aged 3 to 14 years. The results show a significant negative effect of overall technoference in parenting on child social competence. This negative effect was significantly moderated by parents’ emotional stability, as expected. Medium and high levels of parents’ emotional stability buffer the negative effect of low technoference in parenting on child social competence. Results imply technoference in parenting negatively affects child development, but the emotional stability of parents can be a protective factor.

Acknowledgments

This work has been supported in part by Croatian Science Foundation under the project “Digital technology in the family: patterns of behaviour and effects on child development” (UIP-2019-04-7547).

Conflicts of interest

We have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Notes

1. For May 2020, the average monthly paid net earnings per person in paid employment in legal entities in the Republic of Croatia amounted to 6,655 HRK, and median net earnings amounted to 5,579 HRK (Croatian Bureau of Statistics, 2020a). The at-risk-of-poverty threshold for a one-person household amounted to 32,520 HRK per year in 2019, while for a household consisting of two adults and two children younger than 14, it was 68,292 HRK per year (Croatian Bureau of Statistics, 2020b).