The effect of parental phubbing on adolescents' smartphone addiction: The mediating role of loneliness

In this study, the mediating role of loneliness in the effect of parental phubbing on adolescents' smartphone addiction was examined. The sample of the study consists of 512 (342 female, 170 male) students studying in public high schools in Şehitkamil district of Gaziantep province. In the research, the sample was selected by quota sampling method and the average age of the participants was 15.84. Personal Information Form, Perceived Parental Phubbing Scale, Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version and UCLA Loneliness Scale Short Form were used to collect data. In testing the hypotheses, structural equation modelling was used with the support of AMOS 24 programme. Bootstrapping analysis was conducted to examine the mediating role of loneliness in the relationship between parental phubbing and smartphone addiction. As a result of the analyses, it was found that parental phubbing predicted smartphone addiction and loneliness positively and significantly, and loneliness predicted smartphone addiction positively and significantly. When the role of mediating analysis was examined, it was found that the indirect effect was significant and loneliness had a mediating role in the relationship between parental phubbing and smartphone addiction. The results obtained were discussed in line with the literature data and recommendations were made to the researchers