Parental Phubbing,Anger Rumination,and Adolescents’ Cyberbullying Perpetration:A Three-Year Longitudinal Study

The “Family Education Promotion Law of the People’s Republic of China”proposes to establish “the awareness that parents are the first teachers” and to create a good family atmosphere in order to ensure the healthy psychological development of minors.Therefore,it is important to explore the adverse effects of parental phubbing on adolescents’ development.Previous studies have mainly focused on the relationship between parental phubbing and adolescents’ smartphone addiction,lacking the exploration of other psychological and behavioral effects on adolescents.Although a few studies have found that parental phubbing is positively associated with cyberbullying perpetration among adolescents,they were based on a cross-sectional design.They cannot test the stability of parental phubbing and cyberbullying perpetration across time,which also limits the possibility of examining the longitudinal relationship between variables.Therefore,the current study used a three-wave longitudinal design to comprehensively test the longitudinal effects of parental phubbing on adolescents’ cyberbullying perpetration,as well as its underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions.Data were collected from a three-year longitudinal study involving 2407 students aged 11-16 in Shanxi Province,China.Participants filled out questionnaires regarding Parental Phubbing Scale,The Chinese Version of the Anger Rumination Scale,Cyberbullying Scale,and Friendship Quality Questionnaire.The data were analyzed and processed by SPSS 25.0 and Mplus 8.3.The results showed that:(1)There are two subgroups of cyberbullying perpetration: the high-prevalence group and the low-prevalence group.The high-prevalence group is less stable than the low-prevalence group.(2)There is a bidirectional relationship between parental phubbing and cyberbullying perpetration.(3)The initial level of parental phubbing significantly predicted the initial level in cyberbullying perpetration.(4)The initial level of parental phubbing significantly predicted the growth in cyberbullying perpetration.(5)There is a bidirectional relationship between parental phubbing and anger rumination.(6)There is a bidirectional relationship between anger rumination and cyberbullying perpetration.(7)Anger rumination mediated the relationship between parental phubbing and cyberbullying perpetration.That is,parental phubbing influenced cyberbullying perpetration through the mediating effect of anger rumination.(8)Gender moderated the longitudinal link between parental phubbing and anger rumination.(9)Friendship quality moderated the longitudinal link between anger rumination and cyberbullying perpetration.Using muliple methods,the present study extends previous research by systematically examining the relationship between parental phubbing and adolescents’ cyberbullying perpetration.Furthermore,the current study investigates the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions in the relationship between parental phubbing and adolescents’ cyberbullying perpetration by integrating multiple theories,including the frustration-aggression hypothesis,the multiple systems model and the general aggression model.Findings indicate that parental phubbing is a new risk factor for adolescents’ cyberbullying perpetration.Parents should focus on minimizing the frequency of smartphone use when they communicate with their children,and teaching adolescents several social skills in order to improve adolescents friendship quality.In addition,educators should instruct adolescents to use a distraction strategy to alleviate anger rumination,and thereby reducing the occurrence of cyberbullying perpetration.Finally,the present study provides a new perspective on prevention and interventions for adolescent cyberbullying perpetration by exploring the negative effects of parental phubbing on adolescents’ cyberbullying perpetration.