The association between parental phubbing and pathological digital use among children and adolescents: a meta-analysis of Chinese samples

As a typical manifestation of parental emotional neglect, parental phubbing shows associations with pathological digital use among children and adolescents and is also adversely associated with their physical and mental wellbeing. Nevertheless, existing empirical studies have reached inconsistent conclusions regarding the association between them. Grounded in parental acceptance-rejection theory and compensatory Internet use theory, this study retrieved 50 eligible empirical studies from authoritative databases and adopted a random-effects model to perform a meta-analysis, accompanied by publication bias tests, heterogeneity tests, subgroup analyses, and meta-regression analyses. This study aimed to clarify the magnitude of the correlation between parental phubbing and pathological digital use among children and adolescents and to explore the sources of inconsistent research conclusions and the moderating mechanism of related variables. The results demonstrated a moderate, statistically significant positive association between parental phubbing and pathological digital use among children and adolescents ( r = 0.308, 95% CI [0.280, 0.336]). The correlation between the two variables was significantly moderated by parental phubbing measures, pathological digital use measures, and behavioral subtypes of pathological digital use. In contrast, no significant moderating effects were detected for only-child status, the proportion of male children and adolescents, age groups, and residential settings [rural versus (vs.) urban].