Fathers, Young Children and Technology: Changes in Device Use and Family Dynamics During the COVID-19 UK Lockdown

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference Contribution (Conference Proceeding)

2 Citations (Scopus)
116 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The COVID 19 2020 lockdown measures altered how families spent time together, with many fathers adopting new household roles and spending more time with their children. This paper contributes an empirical account of technology use and fatherhood during the COVID 19 pandemic, and draws implications for the design of technologies to support fathers. We outline the findings from semi
structured interviews carried out with fathers during lockdown in the UK. Initial interviews (n=19) highlighted challenges in screen viewing, family dynamics, idea generation and self care. This informed the design of four prototype apps to enrich follow up interviews (n=12), using these prototypes as prompts to explore the emergent challenges in more depth. The interviews identified significant changes and concerns related to technology use within the context of COVID 19, with new roles for fathers conflicting with traditional ones combined with situational stressors to amplify issues with guilt, shame and self care related to technology use.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCSCW 22
Subtitle of host publicationProceedings of the 2022 ACM conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Number of pages32
Volume6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 Nov 2022
EventThe 25th ACM Conference On Computer-Supported Cooperative Work And Social Computing -
Duration: 12 Nov 202216 Nov 2022

Publication series

NameCSCW
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
NumberCSCW2
Volume6
ISSN (Electronic)2573-0142

Conference

ConferenceThe 25th ACM Conference On Computer-Supported Cooperative Work And Social Computing
Abbreviated titleCSCW 2022
Period12/11/2216/11/22

Research Groups and Themes

  • Digital Health
  • Bristol Interaction Centre
  • Human-computer interaction
  • Bristol Interaction Group

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