B
Parents always glued to their mobile phones may be damaging their relationships with their kids, according to a new study.
The study warns mums and dads who lose themselves in their mobiles and other digital devices may be causing "internal tension(内部紧张), and negative interactions" with their children.
The researchers said that technology today means work and outside pressure cannot be avoided at home. But these "blurred(模糊的) boundaries" may make it difficult to devote sufficient attention to the kids.
Study lead author Doctor Jenny Radesky, a child behaviour expert, said, "Parents are constantly feeling like they are in more than one place at once while parenting. They're still 'at work'. They're keeping up socially. They're always trying to cook dinner and attend to their kids. It's much harder to toggle between mum's or dad's brain and other aspects of life because the boundaries are all blurred together. Parents are struggling to balance family time and the desire to be present at home with technology-based expectations like responding to work and other demands."
The study involved in-depth interviews with 35 caregivers, which included mums, dads and grandmothers.
Participants continuously expressed an internal struggle between multitasking(多任务的) mobile technology use, work and children, information overload and emotional tension around family routines(常规), such as mealtime.
Some parents also reported a trickle-down effect(涓滴效应). Their emotional response to whatever they were reading on their mobile devices—whether it was a work email or bad news—sometimes affected how they responded to their children.
Dr Radesky said, "You don't have to be available to your children 100 per cent of the time—in fact, it's healthy for them to be independent. It's also important for parents to feel valuable at work and other parts of their lives. However, we are seeing parents overloaded and exhausted(精疲力竭的) from being pulled in so many different directions."
Dr Radesky added, "Compared with traditional distractions like books, mobile technology is described as being much more demanding of attention. Kids require a lot of different types of thinking, so multitasking between them and technology can be emotionally and mentally draining(令人精疲力竭的). We should remind parents and help them manage this conflict with ideas on how to unplug(拔掉插头) and set boundaries."
(
D
) 5. What does the new study mainly pay attention to?
A. The interaction between different generations.
B. The habitual use of mobile devices by parents.
C. The problem with overuse of technology among children.
D. The influence of parents' overuse of devices on the parent-child relationship.
(
B
) 6. What does the underlined word "toggle" in paragraph 4 probably mean?
A. Decide. B. Change. C. Balance. D. Compare.
(
C
) 7. What can be learned about the parents interviewed?
A. They were constantly attentive to their mobile devices.
B. They fought the boredom of parenting by multitasking.
C. They suffered from internal tension while multitasking at home.
D. They responded to their kids' attention-seeking behaviour coldly.
(
A
) 8. What should parents do according to Dr Radesky?
A. Set boundaries between work and parenting.
B. Learn to settle children's conflicts wisely.
C. Keep emotionally and mentally healthy.
D. Read books instead of focusing on mobile devices.
(
B
) 9. Where is the text most likely from?
A. A storybook. B. A science magazine.
C. A book review. D. An online survey.
