The Relationship Between Parental Phubbing and Interpersonal Aggression in Adolescents: The Role of Rejection Sensitivity and School Climate

Abstract

The impact of parental phubbing has attracted the attention of researchers, especially concerning adolescents’ online behavior. However, limited research has studied the influence of parental phubbing on interpersonal aggression, including the underlying mechanism. Grounded in parental acceptance–rejection theory, the present study investigated the association between parental phubbing and interpersonal aggression as well as the mediating role of rejection sensitivity among adolescents. Additionally, school climate was explored as a moderator based on social ecological theory. The multiple questionnaires were completed by 914 Chinese adolescents ( M = 12.61; SD = 1.73; 49.78% girls). The results revealed a positive correlation between parental phubbing and aggression, which was mediated by rejection sensitivity. That is, adolescents who experienced parental phubbing were more likely to exhibit rejection sensitivity, which further triggered aggression. Moreover, school climate acted as a moderator in the model. Specifically, we found no significant moderating effect of school climate on parental phubbing and aggression. However, school climate moderated the relationship between rejection sensitivity and aggression. A positive school climate buffered the associations of rejection sensitivity and aggression. Additionally, school climate moderated the relationship between parental phubbing and rejection sensitivity. The relationship between parental phubbing and rejection sensitivity became nonsignificant when adolescents were in a negative school climate, and those adolescents reported higher rejection sensitivity whether they experienced parental phubbing or not. Parental phubbing was more strongly associated with adolescents’ rejection sensitivity in a positive school climate. With a lower level of parental phubbing, rejection sensitivity is sharply reduced. The results deepen our understanding of the relationship between parental phubbing and aggression and its underlying mechanisms. It also implicates preventative interventions to reduce the risk of parental phubbing in interpersonal aggression among adolescents.

The cost of “snubbing”: the effect of parental phubbing on filial piety behavior in children and adolescents

“…The interruption due to cell phone usage is a risk factor of children and adolescents’ development ( McDaniel, 2021 ). Numerous studies found that parental phubbing not only impacts negatively on conversation and relationship quality ( Radesky et al, 2015 ; Kildare and Middlemiss, 2017 ; Niu et al, 2020 ; Liu et al, 2021a ), but also on children’s mental health ( Wang et al, 2020 ; Wei et al, 2021 ; Wang and Qiao, 2022 ; Xiao and Zheng, 2022 ; Ding et al, 2023 ; Mi et al, 2023 ; Zhao et al, 2023 ). However, no research to date has directly focused on the association between parental phubbing and child–parent interaction, such as filial piety behavior which remains one of the goals of parents in educating their children in modern Chinese society.…”

“…First, this study demonstrated that parental phubbing negatively predicts RFP behavior and does not predict AFP behavior, which is consistent with Hypothesis 1. Many studies have utilized Chinese samples to investigate the consequences of parental phubbing ( Niu et al, 2020 ; Wang et al, 2020 ; Liu et al, 2021a , b ; Wang and Qiao, 2022 ; Xiao and Zheng, 2022 ; Ding et al, 2023 ; Zhao et al, 2023 ). However, these studies primarily focus on the impact of parental phubbing on children’s mental health indicators (such as depression, anxiety, self-esteem, mobile phone addiction, sleep quality, suicidal ideation, etc.).…”

“…Furthermore, given that previous studies have found parental phubbing undermines adolescents’ prosocial behavior ( Xu and Xie, 2023 ) and enhances their interpersonal aggression ( Zhao et al, 2023 ), which are interactions directly toward others, examining the effect of parental phubbing on filial piety behavior is timely and significant. The results of this study can further explain why parental phubbing leads to more aggression and less prosocial behavior.…”

“…According to an official report by the China Youth Research Center and other organizations in 2018, about 50% of parents in China use cell phones and neglect their children when communicating with their children ( People’s Daily, 2018 ). Numerous studies have shown that parental phubbing impairs children’s healthy development, for examples, leading to children’s internalizing problems such as depression and anxiety ( Wang et al, 2020 ; Xiao and Zheng, 2022 ; Ding et al, 2023 ), increasing children’s externalizing problems such as aggression and addiction ( Wei et al, 2021 ; Mi et al, 2023 ; Zhao et al, 2023 ), and even causing suicidal ideation and self-injurious behaviors in children ( Wang and Qiao, 2022 ). At the same time, parental phubbing undermines parent–child relationships, such as reducing the frequency and quality of parent–child communication ( Radesky et al, 2015 ; Kildare and Middlemiss, 2017 ), inducing parent–child conflict ( McDaniel and Coyne, 2016 ; McDaniel, 2021 ), decreasing parent–child relationship satisfaction ( Meeus et al, 2021 ), leading to emotional detachment ( Wu et al, 2022 ), and damaging the establishment of healthy parent–child attachment ( Radesky and Christakis, 2016 ; Xu and Xie, 2023 ).…”

“…Although extensive research results have been accumulated on the negative effects of parental phubbing, there is a critical question that remains unanswered. Prior studies focus on children and adolescents’ healthy development and peer interaction ( Wang et al, 2020 ; Wei et al, 2021 ; Xiao and Zheng, 2022 ; Ding et al, 2023 ; Mi et al, 2023 ; Zhao et al, 2023 ). However, none has explored the effect of parental phubbing on child-to-parent behavior in the parent–child interaction system.…”