Relationship between the childhood harsh parental discipline and problematic mobile phone use in Chinese adolescents: Mediating role of rejection sensitivity and self-control

This study conducted two questionnaire surveys of 1896 high school students in eastern China at an interval of 6 months and established a structural equation model to investigate the relationship between harsh childhood discipline, rejection sensitivity, self-control, and adolescents’ problematic mobile phone use. After controlling for participants’ age, gender, and socioeconomic status, the results showed that: (1) Childhood parental harsh discipline positively predict problematic mobile phone use of adolescents; (2) Childhood parental harsh discipline affects problematic mobile phone use by heightening adolescents’ rejection sensitivity; (3) Childhood parental harsh discipline affects problematic mobile phone use by reducing adolescents’ self-control; (4) Adolescents’ rejection sensitivity and self-control play a sequential mediator between the harsh parental discipline and adolescents’ problematic mobile phone use. The research results help us to understand the impact of harsh parental discipline on adolescents’ problematic mobile phone use and its mechanism of action during childhood and bring some important implications for the prevention and intervention of adolescents’ problematic mobile phone use.