The Effect of Parental Phubbing on Teenager’s Mobile Phone Dependency Behaviors: The Mediation Role of Subjective Norm and Dependency Intention

Ru-De Liu,1 Jia Wang,2 Dian Gu,3 Yi Ding,4 Tian Po Oei,5,6 Wei Hong,3 Rui Zhen,7 Yu-Meng Li3 1Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 2Teachers’ College, Beijing Union University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 3Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 4Division of Psychological and Educational Services, Graduate School of Education, Fordham University, New York, NY, USA; 5School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia; 6Department of Psychology, James Cook University, 387380, Singapore; 7Institute of Psychological Sciences, College of Education, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Jia WangTeachers’ College, Beijing Union University, Beijing 100011, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail wangjia@mail.bnu.edu.cnPurpose: The aims of this study were to examine (a) the effects of parental phubbing on teenagers’ mobile phone dependency and (b) the mediating roles of subjective norm and dependent intention of underlying this relationship.Methods: We recruited 605 middle school students in Beijing, China and they completed the parental phubbing behaviors, subjective norm, dependency intention, and mobile phone dependency behavior questionnaires.Results: The results of the structure equation modeling revealed that parental phubbing behaviors significantly increased teenager’s mobile phone dependency behaviors in two indirect ways. First, parental phubbing reinforced teenagers’ mobile phone dependency intention, which in turn increased the likelihood of mobile phone dependency. Second, parental phubbing enhanced the tendency of parental mobile phone dependence norm perceived by teenagers, and thus reinforced their mobile phone dependency intention, ultimately increasing mobile phone dependency.Conclusion: We concluded that parental phubbing is a significant indicator of teenager mobile phone dependency and that mobile phone dependency intention plays a mediation role between them. In addition, the perceived parental mobile phone dependency norm played a mediation role between parental phubbing and mobile phone dependency intention and indirectly influenced the level of mobile phone dependency behaviors through the mediation effect of mobile phone dependency intention.Keywords: parental phubbing, mobile phone dependency, dependency intention, subjective norm