The influence mechanism of parenting styles on college Students' problematic smartphone use: a structural equation model study from the perspective of emotion regulation.

Résumé

This study examined the relationship between parental rearing styles and Problematic Smartphone Use (PSU) among college students, with a focus on analyzing the parallel mediating roles of cognitive reappraisal (CR) and expressive suppression (ES) as emotion regulation strategies, in order to reveal the influencing mechanisms of PSU. A total of 4,396 college students (mean age = 19.84 years; SD = 1.37; 49.8% male) completed the Short Form of the Egna Minnen Beträffande Uppfostran (s-EMBU), the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), and the Mobile Phone Addiction Index (MPAI). Results showed that rejecting and overprotective parental rearing styles significantly and positively influenced PSU among college students, while emotional warmth significantly and negatively influenced PSU among college students. Both rejecting and overprotective rearing styles positively influenced PSU through CR and ES respectively. Emotional warmth negatively influenced PSU through CR and ES respectively. The mediating effect of CR between different parental rearing styles and PSU was approximately 1-3 times that of ES. The overall model explained 65% of the variance in PSU among college students. These findings may provide useful information for clinical practice to develop targeted interventions and prevention programs to address PSU among college students.