Insecure Attachment Styles and Phubbing: The Mediating Role of Problematic Smartphone Use

Abstract

Lately, increasing concern has focused on the incessant and intrusive use of smartphones across a wide range of interpersonal and relational contexts. Of concern is that many people appear to snub someone during face-to-face interactions by focusing more on their smartphone than on their relational partner, namely, phubbing. Individuals with insecure attachment styles may phub their intimate others more often. However, such relationships have not been examined. This study used a cross-sectional design to examine key relationships between insecure attachment styles on phubbing. An online survey was conducted to examine the relationships between the variables of this study ( N = 444 , 72% female: mean age 20). The analyses revealed both anxious-preoccupied and dismissive-avoidant attachment styles to be positively associated with phubbing. Moreover, both insecure attachment styles indirectly predicted phubbing through problematic smartphone use (PSU). Insecure attachment styles appear to impact how often people phub others within intimate relationships, and further, PSU may function as a mechanism linking these insecure attachment styles with phubbing.

Effects of Parenting Styles on Different Addictions-Online Gaming Addiction and Online Shopping Addiction in the Digital Era

“…The researchers found a link between authoritative parenting and fewer kids who are addicted to the internet or gambling online [4]. Conversely, higher levels of internet addiction were associated with authoritarian parenting in adolescents while higher levels of addiction to drugs were associated with neglectful parenting.…”

“…Three key factors can contribute to OSA [10]: firstly, people who like to buy anonymously or avoid social interaction; secondly people who enjoy a wide variety of items; and people who like instant gratification. Authoritarian and neglectful parenting styles were found to be risk factors for internet addiction [4,11].…”

“…The development of OGAs in adolescents is strongly influenced by parenting styles according to research [4] whereby research has shown that parenting styles with a lot of warmth, support and involvement like authoritative parenting [5] are linked to lower levels of OGA as setting clear rules and limits, giving emotional support and encouraging independence and autonomy are all important parts of authoritative parenting [5] in which researchers have also found that parenting styles with low levels of warmth, support and involvement like neglectful parenting are linked to higher levels of OGA [5].…”

“…Even so, the effects of parenting styles on OGA and OSA are not always the same. Parenting styles that encourage independence might protect against OGA but they may also make OSA and/or smartphone addiction worse by making the whole sample less likely to use support and less able to control themselves [4,18].…”

Social Media COVID-19 Contact Tracing Using Mobile Social Payments and Facebook Data

“…Pursuing novel methods of data collection is important for both the COVID-19 pandemic as well as future ones. As 85% of U.S. adults own a smartphone [2], mobile trace data can be used to improve the scale and accuracy of existing infoveillance methods for spread analysis and contact tracing. However, installing privacy-considerate contact tracing software on these phones is non-trivial and poses extremely difficult challenges in countries where there is a high level of distrust of government or regulations that already oppose these types of data collection.…”