The relationship between parental phubbing and learning burnout of elementary and secondary school students: The mediating roles of parent-child attachment and ego depletion

Abstract

In this study, we examined the effects of parental phubbing on learning burnout in elementary and secondary school students and its mechanism of action. A questionnaire method was applied to investigate parental phubbing, parent–child attachment, ego depletion, and learning burnout among 2090 elementary and secondary school students in Anhui Province, China. The results are as follows: (1) Parental phubbing was significantly correlated with parent–child attachment, ego depletion, and learning burnout; (2) Parental phubbing has an indirect impact on learning burnout in elementary and secondary school students through three pathways: a separate mediating effect on parent–child attachment, a separate mediating effect on ego depletion, and a chain mediating effect on both. Parental phubbing is a risk factor for Learning Burnout, which can positively affect Learning Burnout in elementary and secondary school students. The findings of the study contribute to revealing the influence mechanism of parental phubbing on learning burnout in elementary and secondary school students.

Does parental phubbing aggravates adolescent sleep quality problems?

“…Parents usually neglect their children in social settings by concentrating on phone use and are unaware of the potential negative outcomes. In fact, a large number of correlational studies have revealed a positive association between parental phubbing and problem behaviors ( Xie and Xie, 2020 ; Wang et al, 2021 ; Zhang et al, 2021 ; He et al, 2022 ; Wang and Qiao, 2022 ; Wei et al, 2022 ; Xiao and Zheng, 2022 ). Among these problems, mental health has received considerable attention from both the public and academics ( Xie and Xie, 2020 ; Xiao and Zheng, 2022 ).…”

“…Higher scores indicated more severe parental phubbing in parent–child interactions. Previous studies showed that the scale had good reliability and validity when used with Chinese adolescents ( Zhang et al, 2021 ; He et al, 2022 ; Xiao and Zheng, 2022 ). The index of CFA based on the original structure showed a good fit: χ 2 /df = 4.63, CFI = 0.95, GFI = 0.96, TLI =0.94, RMSEA = 0.07.…”

“…Parental phubbing is an emerging issue in family context, which is defined as parents’ concentrating on using cell phones while neglecting their children in parent–child interaction ( Xie and Xie, 2020 ; Zhang et al, 2021 ). Previous research has found that parental phubbing negatively affected adolescent mental health ( Wang and Qiao, 2022 ; Xiao and Zheng, 2022 ), behavior ( Wang et al, 2020 ; Zhang et al, 2021 ), and academic performance ( He et al, 2022 ; Wang X. et al, 2022 ). Because of the salient negative effects of parental phubbing on adolescents, it is necessary to expand the research in this area.…”

“…If parents frequently use mobile phones, the ongoing parent–child communication would be interrupted, resulting in parents not being able to respond to their children’s needs in time. Specifically, in parent–child interaction, parental phubbing prevents adolescents from normally enjoying parental attention and companionship ( Xiao and Zheng, 2022 ), and it directly decreases the quality of parent–child relationships and family cohesion ( Niu et al, 2020 ; He et al, 2022 ). Moreover, some researchers pointed out that phubbing is a kind of social exclusion behavior ( David and Roberts, 2017 ; Xie and Xie, 2020 ), and chronic experience of social exclusion could be regarded as a stressful situation ( Wang H. et al, 2017 ).…”

“…However, parental phubbing renders it difficult for parents to identify and respond to their children’s various needs in time, leading to a series of emotional problems for their children. For example, some studies indicated that adolescents expect their parents to be highly involved in parent–child interactions ( He et al, 2022 ; Xiao and Zheng, 2022 ). In this case, adolescents may develop negative emotions if treated by parental phubbing, a form of social exclusion and rejection usually unaware by parents ( David and Roberts, 2017 ; Xie and Xie, 2020 ).…”