The association between parental phubbing and pathological digital use among children and adolescents: a meta-analysis of Chinese samples
Li Feng, Shuanglong Li · 2026
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Description
Li Feng and Shuanglong Li combine studies on a modern parenting habit, in a paper published in 2026. The habit is phubbing: a parent snubbing a child in favor of a phone. The question is whether that neglect tracks with children's troubled use of digital media, from gaming to endless scrolling. Past studies in China disagreed on the strength of the link.
Pooling fifty studies in a meta-analysis, the pair found a moderate, clear positive link. Children of parents who phubbed more tended to show more problem digital use. The size of the link shifted with how each study measured the two habits and with the kind of digital problem. Child age, sex mix, and only-child status did not change it. The authors urge parents to guard shared time from phones.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Li Feng, Shuanglong Li |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 62 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |