Mechanisms of maternal and paternal phubbing on adolescents’ self-control: The attenuating effect of having a sibling
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Xie, Xiaochun; Tang, Xiangyun; Wu, Siqi; Shen, Xinyuan
- Source
- Mobile Media & Communication; January 2024, Vol. 12 Issue: 1 p3-22, 20p
- Subject
- Language
- ISSN
- 20501579
Parental phubbing refers to parents being distracted by their phone during an interaction with their child. The present study investigated how parental phubbing relates to adolescents’ self-control through the mediators of parent–adolescent closeness and loneliness. The current study also compared the effects of maternal and paternal phubbing. Having a sibling may influence adolescent mental health and behaviors. Thus, this study also examined whether siblings attenuate the effects of parental phubbing on self-control. We recruited 670 adolescents to participate in our survey. Path analyses revealed that maternal phubbing had both direct and indirect effects on self-control through mother–adolescent closeness and loneliness. However, paternal phubbing had only a sequential indirect effect through father–adolescent closeness and loneliness. This shows that maternal and paternal phubbing have different effects on adolescents’ self-control. Multi-group comparisons revealed that the direct and indirect effects of maternal phubbing on self-control were non-significant for adolescents with siblings. Thus, siblings attenuated the adverse relationships between maternal phubbing and adolescent self-control.