Conditionally helpful? The influence of person-, situation-, and device-specific factors on maternal smartphone use for stress coping and on coping effectiveness

Bibliographic Data

ID19537752
AuthorsLara N Wolfers (0000-0002-1074-1617, Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien), Sonja Utz (0000-0002-7979-3554, Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien), Ruth Wendt (0000-0003-4864-8394, LMU Klinikum), Jonas Honecker (Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien)
Year2023
Volume17
Issue3
Publication date2023-06-30
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCyberpsychology Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1802-7962 • E-ISSN: 1802-7962
PublisherMasaryk University Press (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.5817/cp2023-3-1
OpenAlexW4382893987
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited58

Smartphones are omnipresent in the daily lives of parents and provide access to multiple resources in stressful situations. Thus, smartphones might be valuable coping tools. Previous research has mostly focused on the negative effects of parental phone use. In the present study, we investigated how mothers use smartphones for coping with stress and whether their phone use for coping is effective. We also explored factors on different levels (situation, person, device) which could influence phone use and coping effectiveness. Building on a one-week experience sampling study with over 200 mothers and multilevel models, we found that in stressful situations while being with children, mothers used their smartphones mostly for emotion-focused coping such as self-distraction and taking a break. Problem-focused coping was less prevalent. Mothers reporting increased cognitive phone salience used it more for coping with stress. Phone use for coping compared to no use related to lower stress decrease. No person-, situation-, or device-specific factors moderated the effects of phone use on coping effectiveness. Using positive phone content, however, was associated with increased perceived coping efficacy. Our results suggest that phone use is not generally successful for coping, but that momentary device-specific factors such as content characteristics might determine whether phones can be used for coping in an effective way

Cognitive psychology · Distraction · Phone · Applied Psychology · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics · Child Development and Digital Technology · Clinical Psychology · Impact of Technology on Adolescents · Psychology

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