Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 9, 2025

Author Spotlight: Understanding Adolescent Social Adversity Effects on Neurodevelopment in Mice
Published on: March 15, 2024
Why is Smartphone Addiction More Common in Adolescents with Harsh Parenting? Depression and Experiential Avoidance's
Wanqing Lin1, Hanyu Liang2, Huaibin Jiang3
1School of Applied Psychology, Social Work & Policy, UUM College of Arts & Sciences, University Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Malaysia.
Purpose:
Harsh parenting is positively correlated with adolescents' smartphone addiction, according to a growing corpus of studies. The various mediating processes that could underlie this link, however, are not well understood. Based upon the experiential avoidance model, the current research aimed to identify the relation between harsh parenting and adolescents' smartphone addiction and the mediating roles of adolescents' depression and experiential avoidance.
Methods:
We recruited 456 adolescents (female = 52.6%; Mage = 13.19 years, SD = 0.85) at a public junior high school in China to complete the harsh discipline scale, 90-item Hopkins symptom checklist, acceptance and action questionnaire version II, and smartphone addiction scale short version. SPSS24.0 was used to conduct independent samples t-test, descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis and common method bias test, PROCESS were used to conduct a significance test of the chain mediation effect on the data. Age, gender, and grade were used as con-founders that were controlled in order to make cautious predictions.
Results:
The results showed that (1) harsh parenting was positively correlated with adolescents' depression, experiential avoidance, and smartphone addiction; (2) both depression and experiential avoidance fully mediated the link between harsh parenting and smartphone addiction; and (3) depression and experiential avoidance also sequentially mediated the link between harsh parenting and smartphone addiction. These findings have significant implications for the prevention and intervention of adolescents' smartphone addiction.
Conclusion:
These findings suggested that harsh parenting may have an indirect impact on smartphone addiction in both a simple way (parallel mediation) and a complicated way (serial mediation). In addition, these studies shed light on smartphone addiction prevention and intervention.
Related Concept Videos
Influence of Parents and Peers on Identity
Parental Influence on Identity Development
Parents serve as primary guides and managers in an adolescent's life, offering support instrumental in decision-making and personal growth....
Self-Evaluation: Self-Enhancement and Self-Verification
Bullying
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Diagnostic Criteria and Symptoms
To diagnose ADHD, symptoms must manifest before age 12 and be evident across multiple settings....
Self-Presentation: Self-Monitoring and Self-Handicapping
Parenting Styles
Authoritarian Parenting
This style is strict and controlling, with little room for open dialogue. Authoritarian parents demand obedience and often enforce rules with minimal warmth. Children raised this way may lack social skills and initiative, usually comparing themselves to others unfavorably.
Authoritative...

