The Interdependent Mediating Effect of Grit in the Relationship between Mothers and Adolescents Smartphone Dependence and Satisfaction with School Grades

Background/Purpose:

Adolescent smartphone use can be both beneficial and detrimental, but high dependence increasingly disrupts daily functioning and academic outcomes. In South Korea, where academic achievement is highly prioritized, parents—especially mothers—often monitor their children’s smartphone use during middle school, a critical phase for academic adjustment. However, most studies have examined either parental control or adolescent dependence separately, overlooking their reciprocal influence. Recent research (Ahn et al., 2024) confirms that parental smartphone dependence is transmitted to adolescents, highlighting the need for dyadic models. This study applies the Actor–Partner Interdependence Mediation Model (APIMeM) to examine how smartphone dependence in mothers and adolescents affects adolescents’ satisfaction with school grades, with grit as an interdependent mediator.

Methods:

This study utilized paired data from 2,088 mother–child dyads derived from the second wave (2019) of the 2018 Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey (KCYPS), focusing on 8th-grade adolescents and their mothers. Smartphone dependence was measured using 15 items across four domains: daily life disturbance, virtual world orientation, withdrawal, and tolerance. Grit was measured with eight items assessing sustained effort and interest. Satisfaction with school grades was assessed using a single item for both adolescents and mothers. Control variables included adolescent gender, monthly household income, private education enrollment, and number of children in the household. APIMeM was tested using AMOS 29 with 2,000 bootstrapped samples.

Results:

Model fit was acceptable (χ² = 475.477, df = 101, p = .000, CFI = .957, TLI = .934, RMSEA = .042). Actor effects showed that smartphone dependence significantly reduced grit in both mothers and adolescents. Adolescents’ grit positively predicted their own satisfaction with school grades, while mothers’ grit was not significantly associated with their own academic satisfaction.

In terms of partner effects, adolescents’ grit increased mothers’ satisfaction with their child’s academic performance, while mothers’ grit negatively affected adolescents’ satisfaction. Additionally, adolescents’ smartphone dependence directly predicted both their own and their mothers’ satisfaction with school grades.

Grit mediated the relationship between adolescents’ smartphone dependence and their satisfaction with school grades. Partner-mediated effects were also observed, with adolescents’ grit having a greater mediating role than that of mothers’ grit. These findings suggest an asymmetric bidirectional process within the dyad.

Conclusions and Implications:

This study highlights the value of using a dyadic framework to understand how smartphone dependence within families affects adolescents’ satisfaction with school grades. The APIMeM approach allowed for the simultaneous examination of both individual and cross-partner effects, revealing an asymmetric bidirectional process between mothers and adolescents. By capturing how each person’s grit mediates the influence of smartphone dependence on satisfaction with school grades—both for themselves and for the other—both for themselves and for the other—this model provides a more complete picture of interdependence within the family system. These findings have important implications for social work practice. Interventions aimed at reducing smartphone dependence or strengthening grit in youth should not focus solely on individual behavior but must account for family-level dynamics.