Cyberpsychology, behavior and social networkingFeb 26, 2024

How Parents Ignoring Teens for Phones May Relate to Teen Smartphone Addiction: The Role of Depression and School Environment

Circadian Biology Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Mar 21, 2026

Abstract

Parental phubbing is positively associated with adolescents' smartphone addiction in a sample of 742 Chinese adolescents.

Adolescents reported higher levels of smartphone addiction when experiencing parental phubbing.
Depression was found to partially mediate the relationship between parental phubbing and smartphone addiction.
The perceived school climate influenced the relationship between parental phubbing and depression.
A more negative school climate strengthened the association between parental phubbing and depression among adolescents.

Simplified

This study investigated the association between parental phubbing and adolescents' smartphone addiction, the mediating role of depression, and the moderating role of perceived school climate in the association. Seven hundred forty-two Chinese adolescents ( = 12.97, = 0.64, 45.55 percent female) were recruited and self-reported questionnaires were administered. Results indicated that parental phubbing was positively associated with adolescents' smartphone addiction. Depression partially mediated the above relation. Further, perceived school climate moderated the relation between parental phubbing and depression, such that the positive association between parental phubbing and depression was stronger among adolescents who perceived their school climate as more negative (vs. positive). The findings deepened our understanding of the relation between parenting behaviors and adolescents' smartphone addiction and implications for interventions and practices were discussed. M SD age

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How Parents Ignoring Teens for Phones May Relate to Teen Smartphone Addiction: The Role of Depression and School Environment

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