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Parental device use and the adolescent-caregiver attachment bond

frontiersin.org

11–20 of 163 posts

Re: Parental device use and the adolescent-caregiver attachment bond

#11
post #10

This tracks with my son’s observations on my wife’s phone use. She’ll tell him to stop watching youtube, then go right back to doing so herself. It doesn’t really seem to compute how hypocritical that is.

About as much as telling your kid to not drink beer while you are doing it yourself.

Re: Parental device use and the adolescent-caregiver attachment bond

#12
post #10

This tracks with my son’s observations on my wife’s phone use. She’ll tell him to stop watching youtube, then go right back to doing so herself. It doesn’t really seem to compute how hypocritical that is.

Wyh can't it be something like I don't want you to end up like me? I don't think it's hypocritical

Changing habits is hard enough on it's own.parenthood and modern life makes that even more difficult

Re: Parental device use and the adolescent-caregiver attachment bond

#13
post #10

This tracks with my son’s observations on my wife’s phone use. She’ll tell him to stop watching youtube, then go right back to doing so herself. It doesn’t really seem to compute how hypocritical that is.

About as much as telling your kid to not drink beer while you are doing it yourself.

Aside from the physical/chemical damage alcohol does to developing brains, alcohol addiction is bad for adults too. We just concede that after childhood you can make your own choice to ruin your life.

Phone addiction is harmful to everyone at all age groups. It's not really the individuals to blame through. The tech companies have broken human psychology and developed something more addictive than drugs.

Re: Parental device use and the adolescent-caregiver attachment bond

#14
post #12
post #10

This tracks with my son’s observations on my wife’s phone use. She’ll tell him to stop watching youtube, then go right back to doing so herself. It doesn’t really seem to compute how hypocritical that is.

Wyh can't it be something like I don't want you to end up like me? I don't think it's hypocritical Changing habits is hard enough on it's own.parenthood and modern life makes that even more difficult

this is what naive adults think, don't you remember how it was when you were a kid?

I seriously, I feel like so many people just somehow magically forget their entire childhoods, maybe selectively?

I lack the ability to lie to myself like that unfortunately

Re: Parental device use and the adolescent-caregiver attachment bond

#15
post #14
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wyh can't it be something like I don't want you to end up like me? I don't think it's hypocritical Changing habits is hard enough on it's own.parenthood and modern life makes that even more difficult

this is what naive adults think, don't you remember how it was when you were a kid? I seriously, I feel like so many people just somehow magically forget their entire childhoods, maybe selectively? I lack the ability to lie to myself like that unfortunately

it's like a variation of the principle of "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it"

a solipsistic viewpoint I suppose.

Re: Parental device use and the adolescent-caregiver attachment bond

#16
post #14
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wyh can't it be something like I don't want you to end up like me? I don't think it's hypocritical Changing habits is hard enough on it's own.parenthood and modern life makes that even more difficult

this is what naive adults think, don't you remember how it was when you were a kid? I seriously, I feel like so many people just somehow magically forget their entire childhoods, maybe selectively? I lack the ability to lie to myself like that unfortunately

I have no idea what your trying to say or what point you're trying to make.

Re: Parental device use and the adolescent-caregiver attachment bond

#17
post #6

This is a weak study that is exemplary of psychology's weak experimentation culture and correlation/causation laundering, especially with regard to self-report. The heavily hinted implication is that device use damages relationships. But look at what they actually measured. They ask adolescents to answer questions like: "My primary caregiver ignores me when they are on a device." (DAIS, their new scale) And then also…

I largely agree this is a weak study, but it also feels like no matter how you run this study it's going to be flawed. Parent-child interactions, relationships, feelings are probably the hardest thing to quantify at any scale. In the end, it's really, "Pay more attention to your kids", which is a pretty good universal message to put across.

There is always a question of whether a bad study is better than no study.

I think weak studies validating people's natural intuitions tend to do more damage than we give them credit for. Even if another better d signed study does way more work and comes with clear results that disprove the natural intuiton, it will be buried in the sea of low effort studies and people will already have settle the issue in their minds as "proven by science".

Re: Parental device use and the adolescent-caregiver attachment bond

#18
post #16
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is what naive adults think, don't you remember how it was when you were a kid? I seriously, I feel like so many people just somehow magically forget their entire childhoods, maybe selectively? I lack the ability to lie to myself like that unfortunately

I have no idea what your trying to say or what point you're trying to make.

ask an LLM or something, they seem to get the point just fine

Re: Parental device use and the adolescent-caregiver attachment bond

#20

This is a weak study that is exemplary of psychology's weak experimentation culture and correlation/causation laundering, especially with regard to self-report. The heavily hinted implication is that device use damages relationships. But look at what they actually measured. They ask adolescents to answer questions like: "My primary caregiver ignores me when they are on a device." (DAIS, their new scale) And then also…

IMO this isn't necessarily bad (it's one way to get data), but the numbers are meaningless without a control. Unfortunately, I think we missed that bus by ~20 years. Had the same study been conducted every few years over the last two decades, I think it would have been valuable. Maybe it is still valuable to do this once every few years? (I think that everyone in 2026 is maximally addicted to mobile phones, but maybe I'm wrong and it can get worse).
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