Open Access

ARTICLE

Digital Distraction and Sleep: Distinct Pathways from Phubbing Dimensions to Teachers’ Insomnia through Psychological Distress

Si-Han Chen^1,#, Yun Song^2,#,*, Xian-Yin Li³, Jun-Ping Zhou², I-Hua Chen^3,*
1 Faculty of Education, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China
2 School of Preparatory Education, Aba Teachers College, Wenchuan, China
3 Chinese Academy of Education Big Data, Faculty of Education, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China
* Corresponding Author: Yun Song. Email: ; I-Hua Chen. Email:
# These authors contributed equally to this work
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Health Issues in Modern Society: Addictive Behaviors and Psychological Health)

International Journal of Mental Health Promotion https://doi.org/10.32604/ijmhp.2026.079774

Received 28 January 2026; Accepted 04 May 2026; Published online 25 May 2026

Abstract

Backgrounds: In the digital era, smartphone-driven phubbing behavior has become increasingly prevalent among teachers and may contribute to insomnia. Psychological distress has been identified as a potential mechanism linking maladaptive technology use to sleep problems; however, this mediating pathway has not been examined longitudinally. Furthermore, gender differences in these associations remain unclear. This study aimed to examine the longitudinal relationship between phubbing behavior and insomnia, the mediating role of psychological distress, and the moderating role of gender. Methods: A two-wave longitudinal design with a four-month interval was employed. At Time 1 (T1), 1061 teachers participated, with 632 teachers successfully matched at Time 2 (T2), yielding a 59.6% retention/matching rate. The Insomnia Severity Index (McDonald’s ω = 0.91), Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (ω = 0.96), and Phubbing Scale (ω = 0.84–0.87) were administered to assess insomnia symptoms, psychological distress, and phubbing behavior, respectively. Results: Structural equation modeling revealed divergent pathways for the two phubbing dimensions. T1 phone obsession directly predicted T2 insomnia (b = 0.14, SE = 0.07, z = 2.09, β = 0.12, p = 0.036, bootstrap CI [0.011, 0.248]), whereas T1 communication disturbance did not. Instead, psychological distress significantly mediated the relationship between T1 communication disturbance and T2 insomnia (indirect effect = 0.16, p = 0.001, 95% CI [0.047, 0.312]; β = 0.11). Regarding moderation, multi-group chi-square difference tests indicated that gender did not significantly moderate any of the structural paths, despite descriptive variations in group-level patterns. Conclusions: The two phubbing dimensions uniquely contribute to teachers’ insomnia through distinct pathways: phone obsession directly predicted subsequent insomnia, whereas communication disturbance indirectly contributed to insomnia by elevating psychological distress. These findings support implementing universal, dimension-specific interventions targeting both compulsive smartphone habits and psychological distress. Although multi-group analyses did not indicate statistically significant gender moderation, future research with larger and more balanced gender subsamples is needed to further investigate this question.

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Keywords

Insomnia; phubbing; psychological distress; gender; school teachers

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