Sleep, self and screens: Unravelling the psychological architecture of Gen Z phubbing behaviour

Phubbing, snubbing people by delving into mobile phones in face-to-face conversations, is a widely prevalent behaviour among Gen Zs. Although previous research has focused on predictors using linear models, the configurational view of these factors as well as the role of sleep quality is often overlooked and this research addresses this significant unresolved puzzle. We adopted a Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to test five theoretically informed conditions based on the data collected from 100 active daily Gen Z social media users. The results indicate that poor sleep quality is a necessary condition for phubbing. Sufficiency analysis identified four equifinal routes - Habitual Disengagers (Consistency - 0.850; raw-coverage - 0.533), Self-focused Validators (Consistency - 0.849; raw-coverage - 0.626), Anxious Scrollers (Consistency - 0.890; raw-coverage - 0.627) and Exhausted Ruminators (Consistency - 0.886; raw-coverage - 0.380). The four configurations has an overall solution consistency of 0.819 and coverage of 0.8098. This research reframes phubbing as the result of complex causality instead of single predictors, brings in sleep quality as a primary physiological vulnerability and introduces four distinct typologies of phubbing profiles through Cognition-Awareness Matrix of Phubbing. Findings contribute to digital behaviour studies and propose targeted interventions that address unique psychological architecture driving phubbing among Gen Zs.