The Relationship Between Parental Rejection And Adolescent Mobile Phone Addiction: The Role Of Maladaptive Cognition And School Connectio

Smartphone addiction refers to the loss of control over the use of smart phones due to excessive use and dependence,which leads to psychological and behavioral problem.Smartphone addiction affects adolescents’ personal lives as well as their academic achievement,and can have debilitating effects on physical and mental health,such as sleep disorders,depression and anxiety.A large number of empirical studies have found that parental rejection is an important risk factor for adolescent smartphone addiction.However,the mediating mechanism and regulatory mechanism of the relationship between the two remain unclear.In order to enrich this research field,educators can develop and improve effective intervention measures and prevention mechanisms to reduce the origin of smartphone addiction among adolescents.In view of this,a moderated mediation model is constructed from the cognitive-behavioral model,based on parental rejection-acceptance theory,problem-behavior theory and social control theory,to investigate the mediating effect of maladaptive cognition on the relationship between parental rejection and adolescents’ smartphone addiction,as well as the moderating effect of school connectedness.For the psychological workers in the school,family environment to the prevention and treatment of smartphone addiction of adolescents to provide insight and reference.In this study,836 adolescents(376 boys and 460 girls)from a public high school in Guangzhou,Guangdong Province were selected by whole group sampling method,with an average age of 15.66 years(SD=0.72).The Short-form Egna Minnen av Barndoms Uppfostran for Chinese(s-EMBU-C),Smartphone Addiction Scale(SAS),Chinese Adolescents’ Maladaptive Cognitions Scale(CAMCS)and School Engagement Scale(SES)were used to measure parental rejection,smartphone addiction,maladaptive cognition and school connectedness.SPSS 26.0 was used for data processing.Results are listed as follows:(1)After controlling for demographic variables such as gender and age,paternal\maternal rejection can not only be positively associated with adolescents’ smartphone addiction,but also indirectly predict adolescents’ smartphone addiction through the mediating role of maladaptive cognition.(2)School connectedness moderated the direct effect of “paternal\maternal rejection→adolescents’ smartphone addiction”.(3)School connectedness moderated the effect of " paternal/maternal rejection →maladaptive cognition →adolescents’ smartphone addiction".Specifically,the moderating effect occurred in “paternal/maternal rejection → maladaptive cognition” and the moderating effect occurred in the second half of the indirect path of the relationship between maternal rejection and adolescents’ smartphone addiction(i.e.,“maladaptive cognition → adolescents’ smartphone addiction”).This indirect effect was not significant in adolescents with high levels of school connectedness,but significant in adolescents with low levels of school connectedness.The moderating effect occurred in the second half of the indirect path of the relationship between paternal rejection and adolescents’ smartphone addiction(i.e.,“maladaptive cognition → adolescents’ smartphone addiction”),and this indirect effect was significant in adolescents with high school connectedness,but was more significant in adolescents with low school connectedness.These findings suggests that maladaptive cognition mediating the relationship between parental rejection and adolescents’ smartphone addiction,and that school connectedness helps to buffer this effect.These findings revealed that reducing parental rejection,enhancing school connectedness and reducing maladaptive cognition are helpful to prevent and control the risk of smartphone addiction among adolescents.