Parental Phubbing and Adolescent Depression: The Role of Parental Involvement and Adolescent Grit

Phubbing has become a widespread phenomenon in the era of mobile Internet. The Phubbing behavior in parent-adolescent relationships and its effects are gaining increasing academic attention. This study aimed to explore the mediating role of parental involvement between parental phubbing and adolescent depression, as well as the moderating role of grit in this relationship. Participants were 670 high school students (390 girls, 58.2%), aged 13 similar to 19 years (M = 15.73, SD = 0.92). A questionnaire measuring parental phubbing, parental involvement, adolescent grit, adolescent depression, and demographic information was completed by the students on computers. Results showed that parental phubbing exerted an influence on adolescent depression through parental involvement and that the second stage of this mediation process was moderated by adolescent grit. For adolescents with higher grit, the negative association between parental involvement and adolescent depression was weaker. This study sheds light on the mechanism of how parental phubbing is related to adolescent depression and the role of positive adolescent characteristics in this association. Our findings may be useful for designing targeted prevention and intervention programs to reduce adolescent depression symptoms.