TY  - EJOU
AU  - Wang, Qian 
AU  - Yahya, Amira Najiha 
AU  - Jaladin, Rafidah Aga Mohd 
AU  - Jaafar, Jas Laile 
AU  - Zhang, Qiushi 
AU  - Liu, Rujie 
AU  - Yi, Xing 

TI  - Parental Phubbing, Alienation, and Academic Burnout among Chinese Older Adolescents: The Conditional Role of Perceived Social Support
T2  - International Journal of Mental Health Promotion

PY  - 
VL  - 
IS  - 
SN  - 2049-8543

AB  - <b>Background:</b> Parental phubbing has become increasingly prevalent in the digital age and has been associated with adolescents’ maladjustment. However, less is known about the relational processes through which parental phubbing is associated with academic burnout, particularly among Chinese older adolescents. This study aimed to examine whether alienation was associated with the relationship between parental phubbing and academic burnout and whether perceived social support from different sources moderated these associations. <b>Methods:</b> A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 511 Chinese older adolescents (<i>Mean<sub>age</sub></i> = 17.01, <i>SD</i> = 0.88). Participants completed validated measures of parental phubbing, alienation, academic burnout, and perceived social support (PSS) from family, friends, and significant others. Structural equation modeling and PROCESS analyses were conducted. <b>Results:</b> Parental phubbing was positively associated with alienation (<i>β</i> = 0.32, <i>t</i> = 7.50, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001) and academic burnout (<i>β</i> = 0.09, <i>t</i> = 2.32, <i>p</i> = 0.020). Alienation was positively associated with academic burnout (<i>β</i> = 0.53, <i>t</i> = 15.66, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001) and was found to represent a significant indirect association between parental phubbing and academic burnout based on bootstrap estimation. PSS from family, friends, and significant others moderated the associations involved in this indirect process, with significant interaction effects observed across support sources (<i>βs</i> = −0.089 to −0.180, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.05). <b>Conclusions:</b> Alienation may represent an important relational process underlying the association between parental phubbing and academic burnout among Chinese older adolescents. PSS functions as a contextual relational resource that may attenuate these associations. Interventions targeting technology-related disruptions in parent-child interactions and promoting supportive relational environments may be beneficial for adolescent academic adjustment.
KW  - Parental phubbing; academic burnout; alienation; perceived social support; Chinese older adolescents

DO  - 10.32604/ijmhp.2026.084309