Longitudinal relations between parental psychological control and adolescents' problematic smartphone use:...

Although previous studies have demonstrated association between parental psychological control and adolescent problematic smartphone use, the dynamic longitudinal mechanisms underlying this relationship remain poorly understood. The present study addressed this gap by examining the moderating role of attentional control indexed by intraindividual reaction time variability (IIRTV) in the longitudinal association between parental psychological control and problematic smartphone use in early adolescence. A three-wave longitudinal study was conducted over a six-month period with 190 middle school students (49.5% boys; Mage = 13.24 years, SD = 1.22 years) from China. The latent growth models revealed that higher initial levels of parental psychological control predicted higher initial levels of problematic smartphone use, and steeper increases in parental psychological control predicted steeper increases in problematic smartphone use. Moreover, IIRTV significantly moderated these associations at both the intercept and slope levels, indicating that adolescents with lower attentional control (higher IIRTV) were more vulnerable to the adverse effects of parental psychological control. These findings suggest that attentional control may shape the strength of associations between parental psychological control and adolescents' tendencies toward problematic smartphone use. They offer evidence-based insights for developing targeted intervention strategies.