The relation of parental phubbing to academic engagement and the related mechanisms in elementary students

In contemporary society, it has become a common phenomenon for parents to browse their smartphones while accompanying their children. To explore the effects of parental smartphone use on elementary students' learning and its possible mechanisms, this study used a diary method to conduct a 14-day continuous survey of 80 senior elementary students. The results indicated that parental phubbing was a significant negative predictor of academic engagement in elementary students; the sense of exclusion mediated the relationship between parental phubbing and academic engagement in elementary students, and security moderated the relationship between parental phubbing and sense of exclusion. These findings enrich the theory of parental phubbing and reveal the mechanisms by which parental phubbing hurts the academic engagement of elementary students, filling a gap in the previous literature. In practical terms, there are important implications for parents and teachers in the education of elementary students with the popularity of smartphones.