Parental phubbing and chinese adolescents' SNSs addiction: loneliness as a mediator and self-esteem as a moderator

Phubbing refers to the act of being immersed in phones instead of talking to the person directly. With the rapid advancement of communications technology and mobile devices, parental phubbing has become a gradually prominent factor affecting the development of adolescents. This study examined whether parental phubbing leads to adolescents' SNSs addiction and the roles of loneliness and self-esteem in this relationship. A total of 2,286 Chinese adolescents (M-age = 13.46 years, range from 11 to 16) were recruited to report their parental phubbing, SNSs addiction, loneliness, self-esteem and several demographic variables. Results indicated that, after controlling for gender, age and family socioeconomic status, parental phubbing significantly predicted adolescents' SNSs addiction (b = 0.25, p < .001), and this relationship was partially mediated by loneliness (the ratio of indirect effect to total effect was 36.0%). Moreover, self-esteem significantly moderated the path from parental phubbing to loneliness (b = - 0.04, p < .05) as well as the path from loneliness to adolescents' SNSs addiction (b = 0.08, p < .001). Specifically, compared to adolescents with low self-esteem, high self-esteem adolescents reported less loneliness when facing parental phubbing, and performed more SNSs addiction after suffering loneliness. Parents who are concerned about their children developing SNSs addiction are supposed to invest more time in interacting with their children and caring for their children's self-esteem development.