How Mothers’ Problematic Smartphone Use Affects Adolescents’ Problematic Smartphone Use: Mediating Roles of Time Mothers Spend with Adolescents and Adolescents’ Self-Esteem

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the serial mediating effects of the time mothers spend with their adolescent children and the adolescents’ self-esteem on the relationship between mothers’ and adolescents’ problematic smartphone use. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study was a secondary analysis of data extracted from the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey (KCYPS) in 2018, which comprised data on first-year middle school students. Mediation analysis was conducted using Model 6 of the Hayes’ PROCESS macro for SPSS. RESULTS: The mediating effect of the time mothers spent with adolescents on the relationship between mothers’ and adolescents’ problematic smartphone use was significant, but the mediating effect of adolescents’ self-esteem was not significant. Mothers’ problematic smartphone use was found to significantly affect adolescents’ problematic smartphone use by sequentially mediating the time mothers spent with adolescent children and adolescents’ self-esteem. CONCLUSION: It was concluded that, to lower adolescents’ problematic smartphone use due to mothers’ problematic smartphone use, appropriate interventions should be formulated to help adolescents develop higher self-esteem through sufficient mother–child interaction time.