The Effect of Parental Phubbing on Adolescents’ Learning Engagement: The Mediating Role of Loneliness

Abstract

As smart phones integrated people’s daily life, parental phubbing has become a common phenomenon and caused various adverse effects on children. This study investigated the relationship between parental phubbing and learning engagement among adolescents and examined the mediating role of loneliness. For this purpose, a total of 324 students from a secondary vocational school in China were surveyed using three scales, including the Parents’ Phubbing Scale, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-Student, and the Children’s Loneliness Scale. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis as well as mediating analysis were adopted to analyze the data. The results showed that parental phubbing negatively predicted adolescents’ learning engagement, while loneliness mediated this relationship. This indicates that parents should avoid using phones and ensure high-quality companionship with children to enhance their engagement in academics.