--- title: Parenting and Cell Phones: Science Shows the Harms Of Digital Distraction description: New research shows how cell phone distraction can deprive babies’ developing brains of crucial developmental signals canonical: https://time.com/4168688/cell-phone-distracted-parenting-can-have-long-term-consequences-study/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-06T17:12:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:41:26.609Z article:section: Health og:title: Science Shows How Distracting Things Like Cell Phones Can Make You Poor Parents og:description: New research shows how cell phone distraction can deprive babies’ developing brains of crucial developmental signals og:url: https://time.com/4168688/cell-phone-distracted-parenting-can-have-long-term-consequences-study/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfcf8094c9e597c2f/698877ba2dce0175de9e732e/gettyimages-525445885.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4773 og:image:height: 2685 og:image:alt: 525445885 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Science Shows How Distracting Things Like Cell Phones Can Make You Poor Parents twitter:description: New research shows how cell phone distraction can deprive babies’ developing brains of crucial developmental signals twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfcf8094c9e597c2f/698877ba2dce0175de9e732e/gettyimages-525445885.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Cell-Phone Distracted Parenting Can Have Long-Term Consequences: Study > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=892ec029-01d8-447c-8a75-43b399f91de0&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Put Away Your Smartphone; Your Kids' Health Might Depend On It [Watch (HLS stream): Put Away Your Smartphone; Your Kids' Health Might Depend On It](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/JRbWnxjg.m3u8) (1:15)  _Published 2016-01-07. Researchers from the University of California, Irvine say kids shown 'fragmented' attention by their mothers could develop emotional problems._  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Jan 6, 2016 5:12 PM UTC Researchers from the University of California, Irvine say kids shown 'fragmented' attention by their mothers could develop emotional problems.  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Jan 6, 2016 5:12 PM UTC Few things require more hands-on attention than a young child. And there’s little that’s more [distracting](http://time.com/3962786/screen-time-parents-smart-phones/) than the constant bleeping of our cells phones. When these two things compete for our attention, the results can be sobering. In a new animal-based study published in the journal _Translational Psychiatry_, scientists show that distracted parental attention may sometimes have detrimental effects on babies’ development, especially their ability to process pleasure. The study involved rats, but the implications, says one of the senior authors, could be very relevant for many parent-baby interactions in our technology-obsessed world. Dr. Tallie Baram, professor of pediatrics and anatomy-neurobiology at University of California, Irvine, and her colleagues used a rat model to study how good but disrupted attention from mothers can affect their newborns. Baram placed some mothers and their pups in modified cages that did not have sufficient material for nesting or bedding. This was enough to distract the mothers into running around looking for better surroundings and end up giving their babies interrupted and unreliable attention. Baram and her team compared the development of newborns raised in this environment to those raised in the normal cages where mothers had enough material to create a comfortable home. **MORE:** [Millennials Are More Confident in Their Parenting than Others](http://time.com/4152344/millennials-confident-parenting-families-children/) When the offspring grew older, the researchers tested them on how much sugar solution they ate, and how they played with their peers, two measures of how much pleasure the animals were feeling and a proxy for their emotional development. The rats raised in the modified environments consistently ate less of the sugar solution and spent less of their time playing and chasing their peers than the rats raised in the normal setting. “We were stunned,” says Baram. “We had to go back and look at what the heck we had done. What was it in the development of these baby rats, what aberrant signals did they get?” The rats had enough food, were raised in the right temperature, and were normal weight. What’s more, they spent the same amount of time with their mothers as the babies raised in the normal environments. **MORE:** [Are we overthinking parenting?](http://time.com/hub/are-we-overthinking-parenting/) What differed among the rats growing up in the modified environments was the _type_ of attention they received from their mothers. Their mothers, stressed by the lack of an adequate environment to raise their young, tended to be more unpredictable than mothers living in the proper environment. For example, rather than repeating grooming acts or postures that reassured their offspring, or indicated to them that it was time to eat or play with their peers, these mothers might be distracted into nervously looking around the cages to improve their surroundings. The fact that the adolescent mice showed signs of compromised pleasure sensations suggests that just like with sensory systems such as sight and hearing, there may be a critical window in which newborns need to be exposed to certain behaviors from mom in order for their nervous system to develop properly. In this case, the lack of consistent, repetitive and reliable attention appeared to affect the animals’ ability to develop proper emotional connections to help them understand pleasure. “It makes perfect sense,” says Baram. “We do need rhythms and consistent exposure beyond the ears for them to be capable of discerning complex patterns in speech and music. We need patterns for the visual system to develop. I guess we need predictability and consistency for the emotional system to develop. Nobody looked at that before.” **MORE:** [Total Parenting Control Is Futile](http://time.com/4073237/jemima-kirke-parenting-control-is-futile/) That means that for people, there might be a similar critical time during which babies need to have a mom and dad’s reliable and consistent attention in order to form proper emotional processes. That includes knowing that at a certain time every day, for example, food will come, or that when a toy appears, mom will play. If mom is distracted by a call or a message alert, and turns to the cell phone instead, then this pattern gets broken and the crucial learning that should occur might not happen. Other studies have shown that such poor development of the pleasure system could contribute to mood disorders such as depression and anxiety. “Predictability means we know that one behavior will follow reliably with a second behavior,” says Baram. “That seems to be engaging the pleasure system.” Baram says that it’s unlikely that the mother’s stress alone from being in an inadequate environment was responsible for the changes seen in the adolescent rats. Other studies of rats in similar modified environments did not always result in offspring with altered pleasure processes. **MORE:** [Not Without My Smartphone: The Case for Somewhat Distracted Parenting](http://time.com/3962786/screen-time-parents-smart-phones/) But to confirm that it’s the unpredictability of the attention that is crucial for emotional development, she and her colleagues are now turning their attention to human babies, and looking closely at mother-child interactions to determine whether differences in the consistency and patterns of the mother’s behavior affects their children. They plan to monitor the effects using brain imaging to look at potential differences in both the structure and function of certain brain regions. “What we are proposing is that there is a sensitive period in which maternal care needs to provide consistent patterns and sequences of behavior so the baby’s brain can perceive them to develop normally emotionally. The predictability of maternal care seems to engage the pleasure system, and the pleasure system needs to be engaged so the neurons involved will fire together and then will wire together,” she says. ## Transcript We know children require a lot of attention but happens if you don't pay attention to how much attention you're really giving them. A new study out of the University of California, Irvine says devoting more attention to your smartphones than your children could mean they'll have improper brain development and emotional disorders later in life. The study published in general translational psychiatry book at two groups of rats One group in normal caged conditions and the other in more chaotic conditions. While maternal care for both groups was similar, the chaotic conditions had mothers displaying unpredictable behavior. The distracted mothers' rodent pups showed little interest in sweet foods or playing with others. To signs of the pup's inability to experience pleasure. The researchers suggest in human children neglect might lead to risky behavior including drugs and alcohol and can lead to depression later in life. The mother The rats of course weren't busy on their cell phones but the researchers say the study shows it is not how much maternal care that influences adolescent behavior but the avoidance of fragmented and unpredictable care that is crucial. The researchers say it all boils down to the brain's dopamine receptors. 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