How Mothers' Problematic Smartphone Use Affects Adolescents' Problematic Smartphone Use: Mediating Roles of Time Mothers Spend with Adolescents and Adolescents' Self-Esteem.

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the serial mediating effects of the time mothers spend with their adolescent children and the adolescents' self-esteem on the relationship between mothers' and adolescents' problematic smartphone use. This study was a secondary analysis of data extracted from the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey (KCYPS) in 2018, which comprised data on first-year middle school students. Mediation analysis was conducted using Model 6 of the Hayes' PROCESS macro for SPSS. The mediating effect of the time mothers spent with adolescents on the relationship between mothers' and adolescents' problematic smartphone use was significant, but the mediating effect of adolescents' self-esteem was not significant. Mothers' problematic smartphone use was found to significantly affect adolescents' problematic smartphone use by sequentially mediating the time mothers spent with adolescent children and adolescents' self-esteem. It was concluded that, to lower adolescents' problematic smartphone use due to mothers' problematic smartphone use, appropriate interventions should be formulated to help adolescents develop higher self-esteem through sufficient mother-child interaction time.