Desires for Connection: Understanding how Digital Tools Support New Parents in their Social Wellbeing through a Cross-Sectional Survey Study

New parents face a heightened risk of loneliness during what is an exciting but particularly vulnerable stage of life, showing impacts across physical, social and mental domains of wellbeing. Although many digital tools offer practical childcare support to parents, few address parents’ social and emotional needs, and research often overlooks non-birthing and minority parents. We conducted a national mixed-methods survey of n = 580 Australian parents in the perinatal and early-parenting periods. Quantitative measures captured tool usage, barriers, attitudes, and variation across parenting groups, demographics, and loneliness levels, while qualitative analyses explored how digital tools foster connection and the features parents desire to reduce loneliness. We found significant differences across parental role, parenting stage, demographic features, and levels of loneliness in the ways parents engage with technologies to support social connection. We offer empirical evidence and actionable design implications for inclusive parenting technologies that foreground parental wellbeing within a Social Ecological Framework.