The Relationship Between Parental Phubbing and Adolescents’ Depressive Symptoms: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Phubbing refers to the act of engaging with a phone while ignoring others during interaction. When phubbing behaviors occur in the context of parent-child communication, it is defined as parental phubbing. Prior research indicated that parental phubbing positively predicted adolescents’ depressive symptoms. However, no meta-analysis has been conducted to investigate the association between parental phubbing and adolescents’ depressive symptoms and what factors moderated this association. After a systematic search for articles published before July 2023, 15 articles analyzing 22,478 participants were obtained in the meta-analysis. Specifically, the study sample sizes ranged from 293 to 4213, with a mean age of 14.460 years and an average proportion of female participants of 0.510. In addition, most of the samples were from middle and high schools, except for one study in the United States; all included studies were conducted in China. The random effects model was used to get reliable estimates of effect sizes and to examine a range of moderators. Results revealed a significant positive association (r=0.310), and this relationship was generally consistent across different moderating factors (i.e., gender, residency of birth, school year, measurements of parental phubbing or depressive symptoms, and the conception of phubbing). Consequently, the findings supported the detrimental effects of parental phubbing on adolescent mental health.