Parents' phubbing increases Adolescents' Mobile phone addiction: Roles of parent-child attachment, deviant peers, and gender

Abstract

Phubbing is a kind of social exclusion and is used to indicate the interruption mobile phone usage has on a social relationship. Theoretical and practical evidence illustrates that parents' behavior have a strong influence on adolescents' deviant behaviors. The present study aimed to determine if adolescents' mobile phone addiction increase after being phubbed by parents, and examine effects of the mediating roles of parent-child attachment, deviant peer affiliation, and moderating role of gender. The study sample comprised 1007 adolescents (518 girls and 489 boys). Multivariable regression with bootstrap sampling was executed to test the moderated mediation. Results revealed that parents' phubbing was positively related to adolescents' mobile phone addiction (β = 0.30, p < .001). Parent-child attachment and deviant peers was found to mediate the relationship between parents' phubbing, ab = 0.06, 95% CI = [0.04, 0.09], and adolescents' mobile phone addiction ab = 0.03, 95% CI = [0.01, 0.05]; while gender was found to moderate the indirect effect of parents' phubbing on mobile phone addiction through deviant peers; the indirect effect was stronger for boys than for girls. These findings illustrate that parents' phubbing is a risk factor for adolescent mobile phone addiction.