About this srcd poster session

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Panel information
Panel 24. Technology, Media & Child Development

Abstract

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Children’s museums invite high-quality social interactions by creating spaces that are engaging for both caregivers and children alike (Luke et al., 2019). Importantly, in order for strong interactions to occur, the exhibits themselves must be designed so that they are attractive to and invite curiosity for all parties (Degotardi et al., 2019). Further, high-quality interactions can be impeded by ‘technoference,’ or interruptions to social interactions from phone use, because it yields fewer attentional bids from caregivers and children (Stockdale et al., 2020). Because it is currently unknown how caregivers and children use phones in children’s museums, this study examined the frequency of phone use relative to other museum-going behaviors and how exhibits with different designs impact these behaviors.

We observed 98 caregiver-child dyads playing in two exhibits in the Iowa Children’s Museum. Exhibits differed in the type of intended play. Specifically, City Music (n=50) invites exploratory play through interaction with familiar and novel instruments, while City Grocery (n=48) encourages traditional role-playing by resembling a grocery store. When dyads entered the space, a timer began, and we recorded what the caregiver and child did every 20 seconds. Observed behaviors included phone use, teaching, observing, exhibit interaction, and an “other” category. Additionally, we recorded perceived demographic information.

Two mixed-effects ANOVAs were conducted to examine if caregiver (model 1) and child (model 2) behaviors (within-subjects) differed by exhibit (between-subjects). The caregiver model only yielded a main effect of behavior, F(3.24,311.01)=36.75, p<.001. Specifically, caregivers observed significantly more than all other behaviors (ps<.001; Figure 1). The child model yielded a significant interaction between exhibit and observed behavior, F(34.85,146.15)=1.05, p<0.001. There was significantly more exhibit interaction in City Grocery compared to City Music, and more observing in City Music than City Grocery (ps<.001). Lastly, a planned independent samples t-test examining whether frequency of phone use differed by exhibit revealed that City Grocery had significantly more phone use than City Music t(96)=-2.48, p<.001 (Figure 2).

Our results show that caregivers engaged in observation and children engaged in exhibit interaction more than any other behaviors across exhibits. Additionally, though children did not use phones in either space, caregivers used phones more frequently in City Grocery compared to City Music. These findings suggest that caregivers and children participate differently in museum exhibits and that the exhibit’s design influences the likelihood of caregiver phone use. The difference in phone use across settings may be attributed to the fact that exploratory exhibits like City Music may evoke more curiosity and hold more appeal for caregivers compared to role-playing exhibits like City Grocery. Taken together, the current study demonstrates that children’s museum spaces provide an encouraging environment for social interactions, and exhibits that promote caregiver-child curiosity and engagement can maximize these spaces and protect critical interactions from technoference.

Author information

Author	Role
Mr. Sam Vasich, Augustana College	Presenting author
Megan G. Lorenz, Augustana College	Non-presenting author

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