The association of parental phubbing behavior with digital game use in preschool children

The term “phubbing” is a combination of the words “phone” and “snubbing” and is explained as preferring the virtual environment to real communication by engaging with a smartphone during social interaction. Our study included 191 children aged 3–6 attending preschool education. The parents of the children were contacted via an online survey to provide information about their sociodemographic, general phubbing, digital game addiction tendencies, and social skills scale scores. The results showed a positive correlation between parental phubbing level and children's digital game addiction tendencies. Furthermore, the regression analysis revealed that parental phubbing was an increasing factor in children's tendency toward digital game addiction and a decreasing factor in children's social skill levels. In addition, we found that children's social skills may play a mediating role in the relationship between parental phubbing level and digital game addiction tendencies. Understanding the effects of parents' phubbing behaviors on children can help raise awareness and take measures to improve parent-child relationships.