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

OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to examine the mediated moderation effect underlying the association between parental psychological aggression and phubbing, as well as the mediating role of anxiety and moderating role of sex and grade. METHODS: Based on a cross-sectional study, a total of 758 Chinese junior high school students had completed measures on socio-demographic characteristics, parental psychological aggression, anxiety and phubbing. Structural equation modeling was adopted to examine the mediating effect of anxiety on the association between parental psychological aggression and phubbing. Multigroup analyses were conducted to explore whether the path coefficients differed by sex and grade. RESULTS: Mediation analysis indicated that anxiety could mediate the association between parental psychological aggression and phubbing. The indirect effect of parental psychological aggression on phubbing via anxiety was 0.12. Multigroup analyses revealed that the higher mediation effect of anxiety was more likely to be reported by boys and students from grade eight. CONCLUSION: Findings of the present study may inform prevention and intervention programs for phubbing in adolescents exposed to parental psychological aggression, by decreasing the anxiety and adopting selective strategies for different sex and grade groups.