How is Father Phubbing Associated with Adolescents’ Social Networking Sites Addiction? Roles of Narcissism, Need to Belong, and Loneliness

ABSTRACT

Objective

Parents’ phubbing has been found to be positively associated with adolescents’ internet-related addiction. However, it remains unknown whether father phubbing would influence adolescents’ social networking sites addiction (SNSA), and the mechanisms underlying this association stays largely unknown. This study aims to expand previous research by testing the mediating effect of loneliness, as well as the moderating effects of narcissism and need to belong in the association between father phubbing and adolescents’ SNSA.

Method

In a cross-sectional design, 4,172 participants (2,189 boys and 1,983 girls; M_age = 16.41 ± .77) from 5 high schools in China completed measures of demographic variables, father phubbing, loneliness, narcissism, need to belong, and SNSA.

Results

Results from regression analyses found that (a) Father phubbing had a positive association with adolescents’ SNSA; (b) Loneliness partially mediated this association; (c) Narcissism and need to belong concurrently moderated the association between father phubbing and loneliness. In particular, the effect of father phubbing on loneliness was weaker among students with high narcissism, and among students with low need to belong.

Conclusions

The findings enrich our understanding of how father phubbing may increase the risk of SNSA among adolescents, and underscore the potential importance of reducing father phubbing and loneliness to prevent adolescents’ SNSA.

KEYWORDS:

• Father phubbing
• loneliness
• narcissism
• need to belong
• social networking sites addiction
• adolescents

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pengcheng Wang

Pengcheng Wang is an assistant professor at the School of Media and Communication, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His research focuses on cyberpsychology, including cyberbullying, smartphone addiction, phubbing, and so on.

Huahua Hu

Huahua Hu, Master of education (applied psychology), is a PhD candidate in JC School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. A wide range of her research interests lie in the fields of health/social psychology and behavioral health, such as personality, cognitive and emotional mechanisms, as well as interventions for addictive behaviors, mood disorders and blood donation.

Phoenix K. H. Mo

Dr. Phoenix Mo is the Associate Professor of the School of Public Health and Primary Care of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She has an active interest in Health Psychology and Behavioral Health and her research interests are to explore the cognitive, social, and psychological aspects of disease prevention and management, mental health research and promotion among vulnerable or diseased populations, and the development of theory-based and evidence-based digital health interventions.

Mingkun Ouyang

Mingkun Ouyang is an associate professor at the College of Education Science, Guangxi University for Nationalities. His research interests include psycholinguistics and cyberpsychology.

Jingyu Geng

Jingyu Geng is a PhD student at the Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China. Her research takes on cyberbullying, Internet addiction, smartphone addiction, personality, and parenting.

Pan Zeng

Pan Zeng is a PhD candidate at the Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China. His research focuses on cyberpsychology.

Ningning Mao

Ningning Mao is a PhD candidate at the School of Psychology, Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition and School of Psychology, Capital Normal University. Her research spans the cognitive mechanism and intervention of adolescent anxiety and depression, and the characteristics of adolescent mental health in the multimedia network environment.