"Mom, what do you prefer? Me, or your phone? ”

A new study published in the journal Frontiers-Psychology, explores the impact of smartphone use by parents on the mental health of their children.

To study this phenomenon, the team has developed the "screen interference scale". This score indicates to what extent children feel that their parents' digital practises interfere with their social relationships.

The study, conducted with 600 adolescents aged 12 to 17, shows that the higher this score, the more the attachment relationships between children and their parents are degraded.

However, these attachment disorders are associated with "various mental health disorders, such as depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. ”

While we tend to draw a direct line between the impact of digital technology on children and adults, we forget how adult practises impact youth health.

"For 4 years, I have been able to survey hundreds of children on their relationship with digital. The question of parents' practises is usually the one that generates the most consensus.

Most of them consider that at least one of their parents focusses too much attention on their phone, and not enough on them," explains Victor Fersing, member of the Lève Les Yeux association and head of the OFF movement in France.

Hence the importance of bringing solutions to reduce digital dependence of adults:

While concrete regulatory measures are (still) expected for the youngest, an initiative like OFF February (deleting social media apps from your smartphone throughout the month of February) is aimed primarily at adults, with more than one million participants in France in 2026.

Many adults stop smoking to set an example in front of children. Let's hope that a growing number of them stop scrolling for the same purpose!

By Victor Fersing