None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
This study aims to test the acceptability and feasibility of an intervention which has been designed to support women in creating healthy smartphone habits at the transition to parenthood. This is in order to mitigate the potential harms of distracted caregiving and to support the parent-infant relationship. Use of smartphones during caregiving is associated with disrupted parental signals and reductions in maternal sensitivity. These constructs, which contribute to the formation of secure attachment relationships and appropriate reciprocity in the social engagement system, are important precursors to healthy relational functioning, which is itself associated with neurodevelopment, mental health outcomes, and optimal development of executive functioning. This study aims to support primiparous women in the creation of healthy smartphone habits at the transition to parenthood - for their own wellbeing, as well as that of the parent-child relationship, and therefore for infant development. This research follows a study completed by the same research team in 2020, which objectively measured the changes in maternal smartphone use at the transition to parenthood. That study demonstrated that women's use of smartphones rose between pre-partum measures (an average of approx 3 hours/day) and post-partum measures (average of approx. 4 hours/day), suggesting that women may be unaware of the risks to child development associated with parental smartphone use in babies' presence.
Interventions
This is a pre- and post-partum study, and it follows a mode of communication trialled during a successfully implemented study published in 2020. During the third trimester of pregnancy, following the gathering of baseline data (using "RealizD", a smartphone-use tracking app, and a survey seeking demographic info, the WHO-5 wellbeing index, the Mobile Phone Problem Use Scale 10 question version aka MPPUS-10) the intervention group will receive their materials via post. These materials, which have
This is a pre- and post-partum study, and it follows a mode of communication trialled during a successfully implemented study published in 2020. During the third trimester of pregnancy, following the gathering of baseline data (using "RealizD", a smartphone-use tracking app, and a survey seeking demographic info, the WHO-5 wellbeing index, the Mobile Phone Problem Use Scale 10 question version aka MPPUS-10) the intervention group will receive their materials via post. These materials, which have been designed specifically for this intervention, are a "tool kit" designed to support mindful use of the smartphone, and will contain an action plan template/instruction (for the creation of a postpartum smartphone-use plan). . This template has been designed for this project, and we estimate that participants will need 20-30 minutes to fill in the action plan and its companion summary (a fridge magnet). The "tool kit" will also have a sticker for the back of one's phone, a printed/branded blanket to use in infant care, a fridge magnet template to create a mini version of the action plan, a "phone bed" charging station, and instructions to get a downloadable 'social media stamp', alerting online friends to possible delays in replying due to engagement in infant care activities. Participants will be able to decide their own level of participation in the study, although a member of the study team will contact them via email, a day or so after estimated receipt of the posted tool kit. This email will offer support in populating the action plan, and encourage participants to ask any questions about anything study-related. At the end of the study, the second wave of online surveying (repeating the WHO-5 wellbeing index, repeating the MPPUS-10, and - once the women are mothers - the Maternal Distraction Questionnaire MDQ) will include questions to invite members of the intervention group to identify which items of the tool kit – if any - that they used (action plan, fridge magnet, blanket, sticker, phone bed, social media stamp), and which items – if any – they found useful. This ‘usefulness’ aspect will be via a Likert scale.
Sponsors
Miriam McCaleb
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Prevention
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Participants will be in New Zealand, aged over 18, proficient in the English language, smartphone users, and expecting their first babies March-April 2023.
Exclusion criteria
Those who are already mothers will not be eligible for this study.
Outcome results
None listed