What happens to children whose parents are addicted to smartphones

In today’s generation, it’s hard for both children and adults to look away from their smartphones.

Researchers have heavily documented the negative effects of digital addiction to young people. Other than physical repercussions such as joint aches and pains, vision problems, too much screen time can also give rise to aggression. Loss of social skills in kids is also common.

"If your teens would prefer gaming indoors, alone, as opposed to going out to the movies, meeting friends for burgers or any of the other ways that teens build camaraderie, you may have a problem,” connectivity expert Holland Haiis says in her book Consciously Connecting: A Simple Process to Reconnect in a Disconnected World.

However, she also said that technological addiction isn’t exclusive to young people: it can affect people of all ages.

In fact, smartphone addicted parents can even be more harmful to children.

When parents are addicted to smartphones

According to a study, parents who are on their phone while attending to their children make them feel neglected. Not only that, children may even feel that they're in competition against the device.

Child development specialist Dr. Jenny Radesky of Boston Medical Center conducted the study after she noticed parents ignoring their kids in favour of a mobile device.

“Upon completing her research, Radesky concludes that kids who have parents eaten up by their phones are more likely to be attention-seekers,” said a Parent Herald report. “And these kids' life get screwed up later in life."

Echoing Dr. Redesky’s findings, Catherine Steiner-Adair, author of Big Disconnect: Protecting Childhood and Family Relationships in the Digital Age, she said that such parents are also more irritable. They tend to snap at their children when distracted from their devices.

As a result, these children increase efforts to get their parents’ attention, becoming more silly and rowdy. They also get irritated easily as well.

Parents need to be particularly careful not to succumb to addiction during children’s first seven years of life. This period is crucial to children's development.

“What a parent gives to the child during this period should be of utmost consideration,” Parent Herald says. “Love is the ultimate ingredient and for some kids, it is expressed by uninterrupted time for them.”

This article was first published on theAsianParent.