Mediating Effects of Smartphone Dependence and Aggressiveness on the Relationship between Negative Parenting Attitude and Depression of Adolescents

Background and Purpose:

Depression is one of the most common and expensive of all mental disorders. The prevalence of adolescent depression, which affects their academic achievement, school maladjustment, delinquent behaviors, and suicidal ideation, is on the rise. Previous studies have found that negative parenting attitude is one of the most influencing factors associated with adolescent depression. Also, smartphone dependence and aggressiveness have been known as predictors of adolescent depression. However, little is known about the structural associations of negative parenting attitude, smartphone dependence, aggressiveness, and adolescent depression. Therefore, the present study examined those structural associations, particularly mediating roles of smartphone dependence and aggressiveness on the relationship between negative parenting attitude and adolescent depression.

Methods:

Data were obtained from the 2018 Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey (KCYPS), which was conducted by using a stratified multi-stage clustering sampling method. The present study used the 1^st wave of the KCYPS data and a nationally representative sample of the present study included 2,541 middle school students. Study variables were measured by the Self-Reported Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), the Social Context Questionnaire for Adolescents (PSCQ), the Smartphone Addiction Proneness Scale (SAPS), and the Emotional or Behavioral Problem Scale (EBPS). Covariates included sex, subjective health status, and geographic area. To examine the mediating effects of smartphone dependence and aggressiveness on the relationship between perceived negative parenting attitude and adolescent depression, the process macro model 6 and bootstrapping method were conducted.

Results:

The majority of the sample was female (54.1%) and reported their subjective health status was good (91.9%). Approximately 85.8% of the sample lived in an urban area. Results of bivariate analysis demonstrate that depression was positively associated with negative parenting attitude (r=.406, p<.001), smartphone dependence (r=.374, p<.001), and aggressiveness (r=.594, p<.001). The results of the Process macro model 6 were as follows: First, negative parenting attitude increased the level of smartphone dependence (b=.389, p<.001), which in turn, increased adolescent depression (b=.093, p<.001). Second, negative parenting attitude increased the level of aggressiveness (b=.186, p<.001), which in turn, increased adolescent depression (b=.810, p<.001). Third, negative parenting attitude increased the level of smartphone dependence (b=.389, p<.001), which in turn, increased the level of aggressiveness (b=.139, p<.001), which in turn, ultimately increased adolescent depression (b=.810, p<.001). The results of bootstrapping indicate that the mediating effects of smartphone dependence and aggressiveness on the relationship between negative parenting attitude and adolescent depression were found to be statistically significant (p<.001).

Conclusions and Implications:

Study findings demonstrate that smartphone dependence and aggressiveness play mediating roles in the relationship between negative parenting attitude and adolescent depression. Considering the high prevalence of smartphone dependence among adolescents, an innovative education and prevention program to control the use of smartphone should be developed. Also, to deal with adolescents’ aggressiveness, professionals should make an effort to provide specialized and tailored individual and group programs by incorporating the unique characteristics of adolescents.