Designing Technologies to Support Parent-Child Relationships: A Review of Current Findings and Suggestions for Future Directions

Abstract

Diverse fields, including CSCW, Communication, and Human Development studies, have investigated how technologies can better support parent-child relationships. While these studies are scattered across literature, little effort has been made to synthesize the findings. We conducted a review of studies that examined the factors associated with parent-child relationships that are mediated by technologies. Specifically, we synthesized previous studies based on children's age groups and different family contexts, including cohabitation. From a total of 12,942 search results from two databases, and 32 results from the hand-searching process, we conducted a full-text review of 190 articles and identified 19 suitable studies. An additional search during the revision cycle resulted in 6 more full-text reviews and 1 additional study being included in the data analysis. We analyzed challenges and facilitators in designing CSCW systems supporting parent-child relationships for families living together or apart and families with children of different developmental stages. Findings showed two common challenges, which should be addressed in technology designed to support parent-child relationships: discrepancies in expected communication between parents and child(ren) and the complex emotions of parents toward parenting caused by their busy schedules. Challenges specific to families who are living apart included consequences from being physically distant and having limited access to communication resources. The following factors commonly helped facilitate parent-child relationships: (1) reciprocity norms of the family (2) reinforcement of transparency, affection, and trust, (3) a physical proxy of each other through an object or interface design, (4) accessibility, the sophistication level of technology, and communication resources, (5) enjoyable, age-appropriate shared content among parents and children, and (6) situational awareness and routine as ways to increase parent-child relationships. Media richness and synchronicity in system design and privacy preservation without interruption facilitated parent-child relationships of families living apart. Based on the findings, we discuss opportunities for technological innovation for physically co-located families and the importance of considering children's age and developmental stages in designing technology for parent-child relationships.