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You are doubly excluded: the interplay of cyberostracism and perceived parental phubbing in predicting problematic
Mehran Mohammadi1, Nikzad Ghanbari1
1Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract:
Problematic smartphone use (PSU) poses increasing risks to young adults' psychological well-being and daily functioning. While offline social exclusion has been linked to maladaptive behaviors, the effects of cyberostracism-online forms of exclusion-and the mediating role of parental behaviors remain underexplored. Guided by the Need-Threat Model of Ostracism and the Rejection Sensitivity Model, the present study examined whether perceived parental phubbing mediates the relationship between distinct forms of cyberostracism and PSU among Iranian young adults. A total of 428 participants (303 females, 125 males; mean age = 28.03 years, SD = 8.67) completed validated self-report measures assessing cyberostracism (direct, indirect, and ignored), perceived parental phubbing, and PSU. Structural equation modeling was used to test direct and indirect pathways. Results indicated that cyber indirect exclusion was directly associated with higher PSU, whereas the association between direct exclusion and PSU was mediated by increased perceptions of parental phubbing. Cyber-ignoring was not significantly associated with PSU. These findings suggest that the psychological correlates of social media-based exclusion on smartphone use vary according to the type of exclusion, with perceived parental phubbing serving as a key process through which explicit online exclusion is associated with maladaptive smartphone engagement. Overall, these findings underscore the importance of integrating social media exclusion experiences with family-level digital behaviors into theoretical models and targeted interventions aimed at reducing PSU.
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