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

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.