Fighting over smartphones? Parents' excessive smartphone use, lack of control over children's use, and conflict

Parental regulation of children's smartphone use is typically associated with conflict. To explain conflict, this paper focused on parents' own smartphone use. A panel survey among parent-child pairs (N-Tme2 = 384) revealed that parents' excessive smartphone use at Time 1 was associated with a lack of control over children's smartphone use at Time 2. Lack of control over children's smartphone use, in turn, was related to conflict about the smartphone from children's and parents' perspectives over time. The relations with conflict were independent of whether parents thought that smartphones have negative effects on children. Overall, findings stress that both, children's and parents' smartphone use, need to be considered when explaining technology-related family conflicts.

Automated summary

The study found that parents' excessive smartphone use can lead to lack of control over children's smartphone use and result in family conflict. The perspectives of parents and children on smartphones can affect the conflicts between them.