Developmental Trajectories of Childhood Emotional Maltreatment and Smartphone Addiction in Primary School Children: Based on a Three-Year Longitudinal Study

ABSTRACT

Primary school children are in a critical period of growth, and childhood emotional maltreatment (CEM) can have a tremendous negative impact, leading to smartphone addiction (SPA). Considering developmental trajectories has significant implications for understanding the relationship between CEM and SPA. This study was conducted with 208 Chinese primary school children to investigate the developmental trajectories of SPA and CEM during children’s development, the relationship between the two developmental trajectories, and the influence of gender on the two developmental trajectories through a three-year, three-wave longitudinal study. The study found a linear increase with age in both SPA and CEM in primary school children. Further, the initial level of SPA was significantly higher in boys than girls. Finally, the developmental trajectory of CEM positively predicted the developmental trajectory of SPA. This study contributes to understanding the developmental trajectory of SPA and CEM in the child population. It provides theoretical support and practical guidance for preventing and intervening SPA in children from the perspective of the family environment.

KEYWORDS:

• Childhood emotional maltreatment
• developmental trajectories
• longitudinal study
• primary school children
• smartphone addiction

Author note

Zhifang Hu, Department of Psychology, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China; Xiaojun Li, School of Teacher Education Nanjing XiaoZhuang University, Nanjing, China; Yanhui Xiang, Department of Psychology, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China, Cognition and Human Behavior Key Laboratory of Hunan Province, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China.

Zhifang Hu and Yanhui Xiang have received research grants from General Program of the National Social Science Fund of China (23BSH144). The funding source had no influence on study design; the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; the writing of the report; or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Acknowledgments

We thank General Program of the National Social Science Fund of China (23BSH144) for providing a grant for our research, all study participants for their cooperation and support, and all members of the research group for data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical standards and informed consent

The present study was approved by the Academic Committee of the Department of Psychology of the authors’ institution and all procedures were followed in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. All participants provided informed consent before completing the questionnaires, and they were paid after completing the whole questionnaires.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the General Program of the National Social Science Fund of China [23BSH144].