Interparental Hostility and Cooperative Interparental Conflict Interact to Predict Chinese Adolescents' Problematic Smartphone Use Through Adolescents' Conflict Appraisals

Interparental hostility is a risk factor for adolescents' problematic smartphone use (PSU). However, the mechanisms implicated in this association remain unclear. Using three-wave, multi-informant data from 364 Chinese parent–child dyads over the junior high school years (grades 7–9, M_{child age} = 12.00, SD = 0.38, 58.8% boys), this study examined how parents' reports of interparental hostility at Grade 7 related to adolescents' reports of PSU at Grade 9, with adolescents' reports of conflict appraisals at Grade 8 (i.e., threat, self-blame, low coping efficacy) tested as potential mediators and parents' reports of interparental cooperative conflict at Grade 7 (i.e., constructive problem solving, marital warmth, and effective conflict resolution) as possible moderators. Results demonstrated that when interparental constructive problem solving at Grade 7 was low, interparental hostility at Grade 7 positively predicted adolescents' PSU at Grade 9 through a positive association with adolescents' threat at Grade 8. In contrast, when interparental constructive problem solving was high, interparental hostility at Grade 7 negatively predicted adolescents' PSU at Grade 9 through a negative association with adolescents' threat at Grade 8. Furthermore, interparental hostility at Grade 7 was negatively associated with adolescents' self-blame at Grade 8 when interparental effective conflict resolution at Grade 7 was low. These findings shed some light on the complexity in the underlying mechanisms for the links between interparental hostility and adolescents' PSU. These findings highlight the need for efforts among parents, clinicians, and policymakers to mitigate adolescents' PSU by addressing interparental conflict and adolescents' conflict appraisals.