Adolescents in the Digital Age: Phubbing, Parental Phubbing, Emotional Eating, and Emotion Regulation Difficulties

Background Parental smartphone use during parent–child interactions, known as parental phubbing, may negatively affect adolescents’ emotional well-being and contribute to psychological maltreatment. However, the mechanisms linking parental phubbing to adolescents’ own digital behaviors remain unclear. Objective This study examined the associations among parental phubbing, adolescent phubbing, emotion regulation difficulties, perceived psychological maltreatment, and emotional eating, and investigated the mediating roles of emotion regulation difficulties and psychological maltreatment. Methods The sample included 128 adolescents aged 12–17 years (51.6% female) and their parents. Participants completed validated self-report measures assessing phubbing behaviors, emotion regulation difficulties, psychological maltreatment, and emotional eating. Correlation, multiple regression, and mediation analyses were conducted. Results Adolescent phubbing was positively associated with maternal and paternal phubbing, emotion regulation difficulties, paternal psychological maltreatment, and emotional eating (all p < .05). Regression analyses showed that paternal phubbing, emotion regulation difficulties, paternal psychological maltreatment, and gender significantly predicted adolescent phubbing, explaining 40% of the variance. Mediation analyses indicated that emotion regulation difficulties mediated the associations between both maternal and paternal phubbing and adolescent phubbing. Paternal psychological maltreatment also partially mediated the relationship between paternal phubbing and adolescent phubbing. Conclusions Parental phubbing, particularly paternal phubbing, may influence adolescents’ digital behaviors through emotion regulation difficulties and perceived psychological maltreatment, highlighting the importance of parental digital habits for adolescent well-being.