Prior to the pandemic,
researchers were already expressing concern about distracted parents, finding “The rise of media use among parents, causes them to be distracted and disengaged with their children.” This trend coined a new term,
“distracted parenting,” which is parental overuse of hand-held technology, particularly cell phones and tablets, in the presence of children. During the pandemic use of devices by all family members rose significantly and has continued to grow to a
problematic level for all family members.