How parental phubbing decreases adolescent core self-evaluation through basic psychological need satisfaction: Evidence from longitudinal mediation analysis and longitudinal network analysis

• Published in: Journal of social and personal relationships Vol. 41; no. 10; pp. 3031 - 3060
• Main Authors: Shen, Xinyuan, Xie, Xiaochun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.10.2024; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Adolescents; Children; Evaluation; Mediation; Mobile phones; Network analysis; Parent-child relations; Parents & parenting; Psychological needs; Satisfaction; Self evaluation; Telephone communications; Telephones; core self-evaluation; longitudinal network analysis; basic psychological needs satisfaction; Parental phubbing; cross-lagged panel model
• ISSN: 0265-4075; 1460-3608
• DOI: 10.1177/02654075241262536

Parental phubbing refers to the phenomenon where parents ignore their children due to mobile phone use during parent-child interactions. This study examined the longitudinal mediating role of basic psychological need satisfaction in the relations between parental phubbing and adolescents’ core self-evaluation. We recruited 629 adolescents (Mage = 15.20 years, SDage = 1.62 years) to participate in our longitudinal survey. Longitudinal mediation analyses revealed that parental phubbing negatively predicted adolescents' core self-evaluation by diminishing their basic psychological need satisfaction. Additionally, longitudinal network analyses identified two significant parental phubbing behaviors that impact adolescents' core self-evaluation: parents keeping mobile phones in hand during interactions with their adolescents and checking mobile phone information during mealtime. Our work provides a novel understanding on how parental phubbing decreases adolescent core self-evaluation.