Examining the associations between smartphone use and mother–infant bonding and family functioning: A survey design

Examining the associations between smartphone use and mother–infant bonding and family functioning: A survey design

Excessive smartphone use has been found to be associated with dysfunctional social and family relations. While most studies of this phenomenon have focused on adolescent and adult addiction, none has yet to focus on mothers with infants. This study examined the association of excessive smartphone us...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nursing & health sciences Vol. 22; no. 2; pp. 235 - 242
Main Authors: Ali, Reem A., Alnuaimi, Karimeh M., Al‐Jarrah, Imteyaz A.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Melbourne John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd 01-06-2020
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Subjects:
Addictions
addictive behaviors
Adolescents
Adult
Attachment
Babies
Cross-Sectional Studies
family functioning
Family relations
Family Relations - psychology
Female
Health status
Humans
Infants
Internet Addiction Disorder - classification
Internet Addiction Disorder - complications
Internet Addiction Disorder - psychology
Jordan
Male
Maternal and infant welfare
Maternal characteristics
Mental health
Mother-Child Relations - psychology
Mother-infant relations
Mothers
mother‐infant bonding
Nursing
Parent-infant relations
Polls & surveys
Psychometrics - instrumentation
Psychometrics - methods
Research methodology
smartphone
Smartphone - statistics & numerical data
Smartphones
Surveys and Questionnaires
Teenagers
Jordan
family functioning
addictive behaviors
smartphone
mother-infant bonding
mental health
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Summary:Excessive smartphone use has been found to be associated with dysfunctional social and family relations. While most studies of this phenomenon have focused on adolescent and adult addiction, none has yet to focus on mothers with infants. This study examined the association of excessive smartphone use with mother–infant bonding, maternal mental health, and family functioning in Jordan. The predictive value of the study variables with respect to the level of smartphone use was evaluated. A descriptive correlational cross‐sectional survey design was used. A sample of 114 mothers with infants was interviewed in person and completed a web‐based questionnaire. Approximately 16% reported using smartphones 5 to 14 hours per day; 6.7% described themselves as smartphone addicts. The results suggest that excessive smartphone use may be linked to unhealthy family functioning. No associations were found between smartphone use and mother–infant bonding or maternal mental health. Raising awareness of this linkage and limiting smartphone use are recommended as precautionary measures. Although this study failed to find any association between smartphone use and mother–infant bonding, further studies using empirical methods might have better success.
Bibliography:Funding information
Jordan University of Science and Technology, Grant/Award Number: 475/2016
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:1441-0745
1442-2018
DOI:10.1111/nhs.12684