Parental rejection and adolescent problematic mobile phone use: Mediating and moderating roles of school engagement and impulsivity

There is a large gap in knowledge about the potential mediators by which parental rejection is associated with adolescents’ problematic mobile phone use (PMPU) and the potential moderators that exacerbate or attenuate this association. The current study tested whether school engagement was a possible internal mechanism in this association, and whether this mediating effect varied depending on adolescent impulsivity. A sample of 787 adolescents completed anonymous questionnaires regarding parental rejection, school engagement, impulsivity, and PMPU. As hypothesized, structural equation models showed that parental rejection was positively associated with PMPU, and low school engagement mediated this association. Meanwhile, impulsivity moderated the first and second stages of the indirect effect: It was only in the highly impulsive group of adolescents that parental rejection was significantly associated with low school engagement, and low school engagement was associated with PMPU. Identifying the processes by which parental rejection is associated with adolescents’ PMPU has important implications for developing an integrative framework of theory and prevention.