The Role of Parenting Behavior in Adolescents' Problematic Mobile Game Use

Abstract

With the rapid growth of smartphone use, problematic mobile game use among youth has become an increasingly salient social concern in South Korea. In this study, we empirically explored the relationship between parenting behavior and adolescents' problematic mobile game use. On the basis of the developmental perspective, we focused on students in 3 different age groups (N = 1,018: elementary school, n = 401; middle school: n = 333; high school, n = 284) and observed noticeable differences according to age group. According to the hierarchical multiple regression results, overexpectation was positively related to problematic mobile game use in all 3 age groups. However, affection was negatively related to problematic mobile game use only in the elementary school group, and monitoring was negatively related to problematic mobile game use only in the high school group. Implications of the findings are discussed.