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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Substance Use Disorders and Behavioral Addictions
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1420151

Linking adolescents' phubbing to depression: the serial mediating effects of peer relationship quality and psychological need frustration

Provisionally accepted
Heng YUE Heng YUE 1Shiwen GAO Shiwen GAO 2Fei FENG Fei FENG 3Feiteng WU Feiteng WU 3Hugejiletu BAO Hugejiletu BAO 4Xuemin ZHANG Xuemin ZHANG 5*
  • 1 Department of advertising, xiamen university, xia men, China
  • 2 College of Business & Public Management, Wenzhou-Kean University, wen zhou, China
  • 3 Department of Physical Education, xiamen university, xia men, China
  • 4 College of Physical Education, Inner Mongolia Normal University, Hohhot, China
  • 5 Baotou Medical College, Baotou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Phubbing is defined as a phenomenon in which individuals use their smartphones during conversations with others, focusing on the smartphones and escaping from interpersonal interactions. This phenomenon has been extensively studied in the literature. However, most studies concerning phubbing have focused on understanding its impact on the receivers; few have investigated the consequences of phubbing on the actors themselves. The present study aimed to explore the link between adolescents' phubbing behavior and depression, focusing on the underlying psychological mechanisms. A total of 441 Chinese high school students participated in this study in September 2023. SPSS 25.0 and AMOS 24.0 were used to analyze the data. A hierarchical linear regression analysis was used to test the effect of phubbing on depression. A serial mediation model was applied to assess the roles of peer relationship quality and psychological need frustration in the link between phubbing and depression.This study found that among adolescents, (1) phubbing had a significant direct association with depression; (2) phubbing had two significant indirect associations with depression, separately mediated via peer relationship quality and psychological need frustration; (3) the direct effect of phubbing on depression was sequentially mediated through peer relationship quality and psychological need frustration; (4) these results were applicable to both male and female adolescents. These findings suggested that interventions aimed at improving peer relationships and addressing psychological need frustration might reduce depressive symptoms associated with phubbing in adolescents.

    Keywords: Phubbing, Depression, peer relationship quality, Psychological need frustration, Mediation analysis

    Received: 19 Apr 2024; Accepted: 14 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 YUE, GAO, FENG, WU, BAO and ZHANG. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Xuemin ZHANG, Baotou Medical College, Baotou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.