ArticleChildren (Basel, Switzerland)2025
The Relationship Between Parental Phubbing and Preschoolers' Behavioral Problems: The Mediation Role of Mindful Attention Awareness.
Article in Children (Basel, Switzerland), 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Parental Companionship Shapes Children's Attentional Functions and Academic Achievement.Child psychiatry and human development · 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
- Linking mindfulness to phubbing among college students: a longitudinal mediation analysis of attentional control and dual-system self-control.Australian journal of psychology · 2026Article
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9 authors.
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Abstract
Phubbing, a relatively new phenomenon in the field of digital risks, refers to the act of ignoring someone in favor of focusing on a smartphone during face-to-face interactions. Parental phubbing, a specific form of this behavior, is a prevalent negative parenting practice that can affect parent-child relationships and child development. However, the impact of parental phubbing on the emotional and behavioral development of preschool children remains unclear. This study aims to explore the relationship between parental phubbing and preschoolers' behavioral problems, as well as test whether parents' mindful attention awareness (MAA) acts as a mediator between them.
methodA questionnaire was administered to 138 Italian parents (mean age = 38.5, SD = 6.2) of 138 kindergarten preschoolers (mean age = 3.9, SD = 1.03). Questionnaires included the Generic Scale of Phubbing (GSP), the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ).
resultsAnalyses revealed a significant negative correlation between the MAAS and SDQ total scores, a positive correlation between the GSP total score and the SDQ total score, and a negative correlation between the GSP total score and the MAAS total score. The mediation analysis did not show a direct effect of GSP on SDQ, suggesting that parental phubbing did not directly predict children's behavioral difficulties. Nevertheless, the indirect effect measured by bootstrapping was significant, indicating that parental MAA fully mediated the relationship between parental phubbing and preschoolers' problematic behaviors.
conclusionsAlthough further research is needed, parental mindfulness may influence phubbing behaviors in parents providing valuable insights for early interventions aimed at reducing problem behaviors in young children.
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