‘Phubbing is happening to you’: examining predictors and effects of phubbing behaviour in friendships

Abstract

Phubbing is the act of snubbing someone during face-to-face interactions by using smartphones instead of paying attention to them. Although studies have examined phubbing in many different relationships, little is known about friend phubbing (Fphubbing). The present study examines which individual factors including indicators of mental health (i.e. depression and social anxiety) and personality traits (agreeableness and neuroticism) are significantly associated with Fphubbing, and how such behaviour is relevant to relational satisfaction with friends. Also, this study investigates the mediating role of Fphubbing between the proposed predictors and friendship satisfaction. Results showed that those with higher levels of depression, social anxiety, and neuroticism were significantly related to greater friend phubbing while agreeableness was negatively related to friend phubbing. In addition, greater Fphubbing led to lower levels of friendship satisfaction. Interestingly, Fphubbing mediated the relationships between each predictor of friend phubbing and friendship satisfaction. This study provides a theoretical framework to understand Fphubbing and contributes to filling a knowledge gap of phubbing in different relationship types.

Feeling Ostracized by Others’ Smartphone Use: The Effect of Phubbing on Fundamental Needs, Mood, and Trust

“…Prior research has solely focused their insights on self-reports by their participants. For example, people who had conversations in which a mobile phone was present or was used reported to experience less empathic concern (Misra et al, 2016), less interpersonal trust (Cameron and Webster, 2011), and reduced relationship (Roberts and David, 2016;Bröning and Wartberg, 2022) and friendship satisfaction (Sun and Samp, 2021). Overall, phubbing is perceived as inappropriate by phubbees, and the perceived inappropriateness increases with the frequency in which the mobile phone is used during the conversation (Klein, 2014).…”

Parental Psychological Aggression and Phubbing in Adolescents: A Moderated Mediation Model

“…30 Adolescents with high levels of social anxiety were more likely to exhibit friend phubbing. 31 After the above discussion, it is possible that parental psychological aggression may exacerbate anxiety, which in turn would be related to increases in adolescent phubbing. Therefore, we hypothesized that anxiety would play a mediator role in the relationship between parental psychological aggression and phubbing (Hypothesis 2).…”

“…In addition, empirical research indicated that trait anxiety was significantly associated with phubbing [ 30 ]. Adolescents with high levels of social anxiety were more likely to exhibit friend phubbing [ 31 ].…”

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

“…Of various predictors that have been demonstrated in previous studies, problematic smartphone use (hereafter PSU) has been found as the most influential factor leading to phubbing [6], defined as a failure to control the use, misuse of, or continuous use of a smartphone, despite significant negative outcomes [6,7,12]. With respect to other individual-level factors, personality traits such as neuroticism, disagreeableness, and conscientiousness are significantly associated with phubbing [12][13][14]. Phubbing has also been linked to psychosocial problems such that individuals with high levels of fear of missing out, social anxiety, and depression are likely to phub others more frequently [12,14,15].…”

“…With respect to other individual-level factors, personality traits such as neuroticism, disagreeableness, and conscientiousness are significantly associated with phubbing [12][13][14]. Phubbing has also been linked to psychosocial problems such that individuals with high levels of fear of missing out, social anxiety, and depression are likely to phub others more frequently [12,14,15].…”