Parent-Child Relationships and Children’s Addiction to Smartphones: A Review of International Studies

Due to the sharp increase in digital addictions around the world, researchers are more and more interested in finding out and analyzing the factors of their occurrence and development. The study of the features of the formation of digital addictions and smartphone addiction in children and adolescents are of particular relevance. The purpose of this study is to review the international literature on the interrelationships between various aspects of childparent relations and children’s dependence on smartphones. The main principles for selecting articles from Google Scholar and PubMed databases to be included into the research were the correspondence of the articles to the stated topic, publication no earlier than 2014, and the availability of a detailed description of the samples studied. 53 original articles written by the researchers from different countries (China, Republic of Korea, the USA, Germany, Great Britain, Austria, Israel, Thailand, Turkey, Taiwan, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, etc.) and international review articles are presented as well. A positive relationship has been established between children’s dependence on smartphones and parents’ dependence on smartphones and their technoference, with parents’ relationships with children, with the parenting style, and with the nature of family relations. It also shows the main negative consequences of parents’ smartphone addiction in the context of the impact on children’s development. The results of this study can contribute to the activation of relevant research on this problem in the Russianspeaking society.