How parental phubbing decreases adolescent core self-evaluation through basic psychological need satisfaction: Evidence from longitudinal mediation analysis and longitudinal network analysis

Abstract

Parental phubbing refers to the phenomenon where parents ignore their children due to mobile phone use during parent-child interactions. This study examined the longitudinal mediating role of basic psychological need satisfaction in the relations between parental phubbing and adolescents’ core self-evaluation. We recruited 629 adolescents ( Mage = 15.20 years, SDage = 1.62 years) to participate in our longitudinal survey. Longitudinal mediation analyses revealed that parental phubbing negatively predicted adolescents' core self-evaluation by diminishing their basic psychological need satisfaction. Additionally, longitudinal network analyses identified two significant parental phubbing behaviors that impact adolescents' core self-evaluation: parents keeping mobile phones in hand during interactions with their adolescents and checking mobile phone information during mealtime. Our work provides a novel understanding on how parental phubbing decreases adolescent core self-evaluation.