Abstract
The interference in parent-child interactions (i.e., parental technoference) has become an increasingly common type of parental neglect with the recent advancements in technology. Although literature has linked adolescents’ mental health problems to parental neglect, it is still underexplored how parental technoference may be related to adolescents’ social anxiety. Empathy is an ability to share and understand the emotion and perspectives of other individuals. Its two components exhibit distinct associations with social anxiety. This study aims to investigate the psychological mechanism underlying this relationship in the perspective of adolescents’ ability of interpersonal ability, by examining the mediating roles of parent-child attachment and cognitive/affective empathy. A total of 3200 Chinese adolescents participated in the study (grade 10: 643 males, 888 females, mean age = 16.377 years old; grade 11: 715 males, 954 females, mean age = 17.261 years old). The results indicated a positive association between parental technoference and social anxiety. Furthermore, this relationship was found to be mediated by parent-child attachment, while no specific mediating effect was observed for empathy. Additionally, the study revealed a serial mediation role that parent-child attachment and both components of empathy ability were involved. The empathic concern (i.e., affective empathy) displayed positive association with social anxiety, whereas, perspective taking (i.e., cognitive empathy) indicated negative correlation. Overall, this study enhances our understanding of the relationship between parental technoference and adolescents' social anxiety. The findings highlight the importance of parents paying attention to their technology device usage behaviors when interacting with their children.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The raw/process data required to reproduce these findings cannot be shared at this time as the data also forms part of an ongoing study.
References
Armsden, G. C., & Greenberg, M. T. (1987). The inventory of parent and peer attachment: Individual differences and their relationship to psychological well-being in adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 16(427–454), Q1. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02202939
Bandura, A. (1969). Social-learning theory of identificatory processes. In D. A. Goslin (Ed.), Handbook of socialization theory and research (pp. 213–262). Rand McNally & Company.
Batson, C. D., Eklund, J. H., Chermok, V. L., Hoyt, J. L., & Ortiz, B. G. (2007). An additional antecedent of empathic concern: Valuing the welfare of the person in need. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(65–74), Q1. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.93.1.65
Boele, S., Van der Graaff, J., de Wied, M., Van der Valk, I. E., Crocetti, E., & Branje, S. (2019). Linking parent-child and peer relationship quality to empathy in adolescence: A multilevel meta-analysis. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 48(6), 1033–1055. Q1. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-019-00993-5
Bornstein, M.H., Leventhal, T., & Lerner, R.M. (Eds.). (2015). Handbook of child psychology and developmental science: Ecological settings and processes, Vol. 4, 7th ed (pp. xxvii, 907). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Bowlby, J. (1982). Attachment and loss: Retrospect and prospect. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 52, 664–678. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-0025.1982.tb01456.x
Bowlby, J. (1987). Defensive processes in the light of attachment theory. In Attachment and the therapeutic process: Essays in honor of Otto Allen Will, Jr., M.D. (pp. 63–79). International Universities Press, Inc.
Brumariu, L. E., & Kerns, K. A. (2008). Mother–child attachment and social anxiety symptoms in middle childhood. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 29(5), 393–402. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2008.06.002
Cassidy, J. (2008). The nature of the child’s ties. In Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications, 2nd ed (pp. 3–22). The Guilford Press.
Chen, H., Meza, J. I., Yan, Y., Wu, Q., & Lin, X. (2021). Parental attachment and depression in adolescents: Moderation mediation model of empathy and gender. Current Psychology. Q3. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01698-4
Chorot, P., Valiente, R. M., Magaz, A. M., Santed, M. A., & Sandin, B. (2017). Perceived parental child rearing and attachment as predictors of anxiety and depressive disorder symptoms in children: The mediational role of attachment. Psychiatry Research, 253(287–295), Q1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2017.04.015
Cuff, B. M. P., Brown, S. J., Taylor, L., & Howat, D. J. (2016). Empathy: A review of the concept. Emotion Review, 8(2), 144–153. Q1. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073914558466
David, M. E., & Roberts, J. A. (2017). Phubbed and alone: Phone snubbing, social exclusion, and attachment to social media. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2(2), 155–163. https://doi.org/10.1086/690940
Davis, M. H. (1983). Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44(113–126), Q1. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.44.1.113
Derin, S., Selman, S. B., Alyanak, B., & Soylu, N. (2022). The role of adverse childhood experiences and attachment styles in social anxiety disorder in adolescents. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 27(3), 644–657. Q3/Q4. https://doi.org/10.1177/13591045221078085
Eisenberg, N., & Miller, P. A. (1987). The relation of empathy to prosocial and related behaviors. Psychological Bulletin, 101(91–119), Q1. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.101.1.91
Eyal, T., Steffel, M., & Epley, N. (2018). Perspective mistaking: Accurately understanding the mind of another requires getting perspective, not taking perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 114(547–571), Q1. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000115
Gambin, M., & Sharp, C. (2018). Relations between empathy and anxiety dimensions in inpatient adolescents. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 31(4), 447–458. Q2. https://doi.org/10.1080/10615806.2018.1475868
Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach (pp. xvii, 507). Guilford Press.
Hoffman, M. L. (2008). Empathy and prosocial behavior. In Handbook of emotions, 3rd ed (pp. 440–455). The Guilford Press.
Jin, C., Zou, H., Zeng, R., & Dou, D. (2010). The trait of attachment and the effect of attachment on social adjustment of medium school students: Parents intimacy as a moderator. Psychological Development and Education (chinese), 26(6), 577–583.
La Greca, A. M., & Lopez, N. (1998). Social anxiety among adolescents: Linkages with peer relations and friendships. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 26(2), 83–94. Q2. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1022684520514
Laghi, F., D’Alessio, M., Pallini, S., & Baiocco, R. (2009). Attachment representations and time perspective in adolescence. Social Indicators Research, 90(181–194), Q2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-008-9249-0
Leigh, E., & Clark, D. M. (2018). Understanding social anxiety disorder in adolescents and improving treatment outcomes: Applying the cognitive model of Clark and Wells (1995). Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 21(3), 388–414. Q1. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-018-0258-5
McDaniel, B. T., & Coyne, S. M. (2016). “Technoference”: The interference of technology in couple relationships and implications for women’s personal and relational well-being. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 5(1), 85–98. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000065
McDaniel, B. T., & Radesky, J. S. (2018). Technoference: Parent distraction with technology and associations with child behavior problems. Child Development, 89(1), 100–109. Q1. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12822
Myruski, S., Gulyayeva, O., Birk, S., Pérez-Edgar, K., Buss, K. A., & Dennis-Tiwary, T. A. (2018). Digital disruption? Maternal mobile device use is related to infant social-emotional functioning. Developmental Science, 21(4), e12610. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12610
Niu, G., Yao, L., Wu, L., Tian, Y., Xu, L., & Sun, X. (2020). Parental phubbing and adolescent problematic mobile phone use: The role of parent-child relationship and self-control. Children and Youth Services Review, 116, 105247. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105247
Pace, C. S., Muzi, S., & Steele, H. (2020). Adolescents’ attachment: Content and discriminant validity of the friends and family interview. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 29(4), 1173–1186. Q2/Q3. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01654-8
Pile, V., Haller, S. P. W., Hiu, C. F., & Lau, J. Y. F. (2017). Young people with higher social anxiety are less likely to adopt the perspective of another: Data from the Director task. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 55(41–48), Q3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2016.11.002
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J.-Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(879–903), Q1. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879
Radesky, J., Miller, A.L., Rosenblum, K.L., Appugliese, D., Kaciroti, N., & Lumeng, J.C. (2015). Maternal mobile device use during a structured parent–child interaction task. Academic Pediatrics, 15(2), 238–244. Q2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2014.10.001
Rapee, R. M., Magson, N. R., Forbes, M. K., Richardson, C. E., Johnco, C. J., Oar, E. L., & Fardouly, J. (2022). Risk for social anxiety in early adolescence: Longitudinal impact of pubertal development, appearance comparisons, and peer connections. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 154, 104126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2022.104126
Roberts, J. A., & David, M. E. (2016). My life has become a major distraction from my cell phone: Partner phubbing and relationship satisfaction among romantic partners. Computers in Human Behavior, 54, 134–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.07.058
Roberts, J. A., & David, M. E. (2017). Put down your phone and listen to me: How boss phubbing undermines the psychological conditions necessary for employee engagement. Computers in Human Behavior, 75, 206–217. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.05.021
Rohner, R.P., Khaleque, A., & Cournoyer, D. E. (2005). Parental acceptance-rejection: Theory, methods, cross-cultural evidence, and implications. Ethos, 33(3), 299–334. Q3/Q4. https://doi.org/10.1525/eth.2005.33.3.299
Shamay-Tsoory, S. G. (2011). The neural bases for empathy. The Neuroscientist: A Review Journal Bringing Neurobiology, Neurology and Psychiatry, 17(1), 18–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073858410379268
Shamay-Tsoory, S., & Lamm, C. (2018). The neuroscience of empathy—From past to present and future. Neuropsychologia, 116(Pt A), 1–4. Q2/Q3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.04.034
Sim, M., Kim, S.-Y., & Suh, Y. (2022). Sample size requirements for simple and complex mediation models. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 82(1), 76–106. https://doi.org/10.1177/00131644211003261
Solmi, M., Radua, J., Olivola, M., Croce, E., Soardo, L., Salazar de Pablo, G., Il Shin, J., Kirkbride, J. B., Jones, P., Kim, J. H., Kim, J. Y., Carvalho, A. F., Seeman, M. V., Correll, C. U., & Fusar-Poli, P. (2022). Age at onset of mental disorders worldwide: Large-scale meta-analysis of 192 epidemiological studies. Molecular Psychiatry, 27(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-021-01161-7
Tehseen, S., Ramayah, T., & Sajilan, S. (2017). Testing and controlling for common method variance: A review of available methods. Journal of Management Sciences, 4(2), 142–168. https://doi.org/10.20547/jms.2014.1704202
Wang, H., Zhou, L., Geng, J., & Lei, L. (2022). Sex differences of parental phubbing on online hostility among adolescents: A moderated mediation model. Aggressive Behavior, 48(1), 94–102. Q2/Q3. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21994
Wang, X., Gao, L., Yang, J., Zhao, F., & Wang, P. (2020). Parental phubbing and adolescents’ depressive symptoms: Self-esteem and perceived social support as moderators. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 49(2), 427–437. Q1. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-019-01185-x
Xie, X., Chen, W., Zhu, X., & He, D. (2019). Parents’ phubbing increases adolescents’ mobile phone addiction: Roles of parent-child attachment, deviant peers, and gender. Children and Youth Services Review, 105(104426), Q2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104426
Xie, X., & Xie, J. (2020). Parental phubbing accelerates depression in late childhood and adolescence: A two-path model. Journal of Adolescence, 78, 43–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2019.12.004
Xu, C., & Xie, X. (2023). Put down the phone and accompany me: How parental phubbing undermines prosocial behavior of early adolescents. Children and Youth Services Review, 149(106958), Q2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.106958
Xu, X., Liu, Z., Gong, S., & Wu, Y. (2022). The relationship between empathy and attachment in children and adolescents: Three-level meta-analyses. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(3), Article 3. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031391
Zhang, F., Dong, Y., & Wang, K. (2010). Reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index -C. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology, 18, 155–157.
Zhang, Y., Ding, Q., & Wang, Z. (2021). Why parental phubbing is at risk for adolescent mobile phone addiction: A serial mediating model. Children and Youth Services Review, 121, 105873. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105873
Zhou, X., Xu, Q., Inglés, C. J., Hidalgo, M. D., & La Greca, A. M. (2008). Reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 39, 185–200. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-007-0079-0
Funding
This work was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China [Major Program, grant number 19ZDA357].
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Ji, X., Feng, N. & Cui, L. The serial mediation role of parent-child attachment and empathy in the relationship between parental technoference and social anxiety. Curr Psychol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-06109-y
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-06109-y