Parental Care and Mobile Phone Addiction Among Children in Rural China: The Mediating Effects of Perceived Discrimination and Loneliness

ABSTRACT Mobile phone addiction among children has become a rising global concern, threatening their health and development. In rural China, children have a high incidence of mobile phone addiction. While scholars highlight the parental role in influencing children's mobile phone use, limited research has explored the mechanisms through which parental care is related to rural children's mobile phone addiction. To fill the gaps, the present study examined the effect of parental care on rural children's mobile phone addiction and explored the mediating effects of perceived discrimination and loneliness, as well as the moderating effect of duration of boarding at school on these pathways. A sample of 2160 Chinese rural children in fourth through sixth grades completed the questionnaires. After controlling for sex, age and left‐behind status, parental care was negatively related to rural children's mobile phone addiction. This relation was mediated by perceived discrimination and loneliness in parallel and sequential ways. Duration of boarding at school moderated the relation between parental care and perceived discrimination. The effect of parental care on perceived discrimination weakened for children with longer duration of boarding at school. These findings provide valuable insights for developing prevention and intervention strategies aimed at addressing mobile phone addiction in rural children.