Parent–child relationships and mobile phone addiction tendency among Chinese adolescents: The mediating role of psychological needs satisfaction and the moderating role of peer relationships

Abstract

Adolescence is a period of high incidence of mobile phone addiction, which can lead to negative effects on adolescents’ physical and mental health. Previous studies have revealed that family relationships are the core factors that trigger adolescents’ mobile phone addiction tendency. The present study explores the underlying mechanism that connects parent–child relationships and mobile phone addiction tendency among adolescents. It does so by testing the mediating role of psychological needs satisfaction and the moderating role of peer relationships. Data was collected from a sample of 1767 Chinese adolescents (from 10 to 18 years of age) using a questionnaire survey. Our results showed that: (1) psychological needs satisfaction can partially mediate the relationship between parent–child relationships and mobile phone addiction tendency; (2) peer relationships can moderate the direct and indirect links between parent–child relationships and mobile phone addiction tendency. These moderation effects were stronger for adolescents with positive peer relationships than for those with negative peer relationships. This study improves our knowledge of how and when parent–child relationships lead to mobile phone addiction tendency in adolescents and could lead to the development of effective prevention and intervention strategies.