‘There’s good and bad’: parent perspectives on the influence of mobile touch screen device use on prenatal attachment

Abstract

The potential for human–computer interaction to have a substantial impact on adults is well documented. However, its potential importance prior to birth has rarely been reported. Parental use of smartphones and tablet computers could influence the relationship between parent and baby during pregnancy (prenatal attachment) and thus child development. Twenty-seven families were interviewed to explore how parents used these devices during pregnancy, and how device use influenced parents’ thoughts, feelings and behaviours towards their baby while in utero. All used devices for a variety of purposes, and all described good levels of prenatal attachment. Parents described both disrupted and enhanced connectedness as a result of device use, and increased parental stress. The findings highlight a new opportunity for how device design and use guidelines could support families to maximise benefits and reduce detriments of device use to optimise prenatal attachment, and thus future parent–child attachment and child development.

Practitioner summary: Many parents regularly use smartphones and tablet computers while pregnant. This qualitative study found that how devices were used either enhanced or disrupted feelings of prenatal attachment. Practitioners should be aware of potential beneficial and detrimental impacts of device use during pregnancy given implications for future attachment and child development.

Keywords:

• Human–computer interaction
• mobile touch screen device use
• prenatal attachment
• screen time
• technology use
• The ORIGINS Project
• thematic analysis qualitative research

Acknowledgments

The ORIGINS Project is only possible because of the commitment of the families in ORIGINS. We are grateful to all the participants, health professionals and researchers who support the project. We would also like to acknowledge and thank the following teams and individuals who have made The ORIGINS Project possible: The ORIGINS Project team; CEO Dr. Kempton Cowan, executive staff and obstetric, neonatal and paediatric teams, Joondalup Health Campus (JHC); Director Professor Jonathan Carapetis and executive staff, Telethon Kids Institute; Mayor Tracey Roberts, City of Wanneroo; Mayor Albert Jacobs, City of Joondalup; Professor Fiona Stanley, patron of ORIGINS; members of ORIGINS Community Reference and Participant Reference Groups; Research Interest Groups and the ORIGINS Scientific Committee. The authors thank the ORIGINS Project community reference group for their advice regarding the interview schedule.

Ethical approval

The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Joondalup Health Campus Human Research Ethics Committee (Approval No. 1804) and Curtin University Human Research Ethics Committee (Approval No. AHRE2018-0065).

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Author contributions

All authors were involved in study design and drafting of the manuscript. R.H. and J.Z. conducted interviews and data analysis. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship. The ORIGINS Project has received core funding support from the Telethon Perth Children’s Hospital Research Fund, Joondalup Health Campus, the Paul Ramsay Foundation and the Commonwealth Government of Australia through the Channel 7 Telethon Trust. Substantial in-kind support has been provided by Telethon Kids Institute and Joondalup Health Campus and costs associated with the current study were funded by a Curtin University Early Career Grant led by J.Z. S.Z. is supported by a Centre of Excellence grant from the Australian Research Council (CE140100027).