ReviewPsychology research and behavior management2023
Parental Phubbing and Child Social-Emotional Adjustment: A Meta-Analysis of Studies Conducted in China.
Review in Psychology research and behavior management, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Parental Technoference and Child Problematic Media Use: Meta-Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Pooled it
- You are doubly excluded: the interplay of cyberostracism and perceived parental phubbing in predicting problematic smartphone use.Addictive behaviors reports · 2026Article
- The mediating roles of psychological resilience and social support in the relationship between phubbing and psychological distress in adolescents.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The shadow of parental phubbing on adolescents' psychological adjustment: roles of problematic social media use and social support.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Psychometric evaluation of the Perceived Parental Phubbing Scale (PPPS) among Iranian university students: associations with psychosocial factors and group differences.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Digital Ecosystems, Children, and Adolescents: Technical Report.Pediatrics · 2026Review
- "Look at me, not your screen": the negative association of parental phubbing on adolescent well-being.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Parenting stress and young children's problematic media use: the serial mediating roles of parental phubbing and parent-child conflict.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- The relationship between parental phubbing and preschool children's social-emotional competence: a serial mediation model of family intimacy and parent-child attachment.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Cumulative Family Risk and Migrant Children's School Adjustment: A Moderated Mediation Model of Relative Deprivation and Beliefs About Adversity.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Childhood psychological abuse and neglect impair adolescent social-emotional competence: a network analysis with mediation.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- "I Haven't Had Anyone Talk to Me About Phone Use, At All": Primiparous Mothers' Conversations About Smartphone Use While Caregiving.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Revision and Validation of the Mother-Love Absence Scale.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Adults social media addiction and phubbing latent profiles and authenticity as outcome.BMC psychology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Introduction: Parental phubbing refers to the act of parents using mobile phones in the presence of their children instead of engaging with them. With increasing smartphone use in many households, parental phubbing is a potential threat to children's healthy development. This meta-analysis synthesized the existing evidence on the impact of parental phubbing on children's social-emotional development to examine the effect sizes and identify the moderators. Methods: Following the PRISMA guidelines, we conducted a systematic search across multiple electronic databases (Web of Science, EBSCO, ProQuest, Springer, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure) from 2012 to May 2023. Our search included both English and Chinese literature, encompassing published journal articles as well as thesis. To assess the risk of bias, we utilized the Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies. Publication bias was evaluated using funnel plot interpretation and Egger's regression intercept. Results: Our comprehensive search identified 42 studies with 56,275 children and 59 effect sizes. A random-effects meta-analysis revealed that parental phubbing was positively associated with children's internalizing problems ( Discussion: The findings of this meta-analysis provide strong evidence supporting the detrimental effects of parental phubbing on child social-emotional adjustment. Consequently, parents, researchers, and the government must collaborate to mitigate parental phubbing and promote the healthy development of children's social-emotional abilities.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.