Longitudinal Relation Between Parental Phubbing and Prosocial Behaviors: Mediated by Loneliness and Moderated by Neuroticism

Parental phubbing refers to the extent to which parents reduce interaction with their children or ignore them when parents are distracted by their smartphones. Parental phubbing has been shown to negatively affect adolescents' psychological and behavioral outcomes, including prosocial behaviors. However, few studies have employed a longitudinal design to examine the relation, leaving the underlying mediating and moderating mechanisms largely unexplored. Guided by attachment theory and the risky families model, the current study aimed to investigate the relation between parental phubbing and prosocial behaviors, and explore the mediating role of loneliness and the moderating role of neuroticism. A total of 2,407 Chinese adolescents (50.23% girl, <i>M</i>_age = 12.75, <i>SD</i> = .58 at baseline) from seven schools was assessed at three time points: T1, T2 (12 months after T1) and T3 (12 months after T2). Using a longitudinal moderated mediation model and controlling for age, sex, family socioeconomic status, and baseline prosocial behaviors, higher parental phubbing at T1 predicted lower prosocial behaviors at T3. Loneliness at T2 played a mediating role between parental phubbing at T1 and prosocial behaviors at T3. Moreover, neuroticism at T1 moderated the relation between parental phubbing and prosocial behaviors, as well as loneliness and prosocial behaviors. Specifically, for adolescents high in neuroticism, higher parental phubbing was associated with lower prosocial behaviors while this association was nonsignificant for adolescents low in neuroticism. For adolescents low in neuroticism, higher loneliness was associated with lower prosocial behaviors while this association was nonsignificant for adolescents high in neuroticism.