Maternal abusive parenting and young South Korean adolescents' problematic smartphone use: The moderating effects of time spent hanging out with peers and trusting peer relationships

Introduction: Young adolescents with abusive mothers act abusively are at high risk of developing problematic smartphone use as a means of avoiding an unsatisfying reality and making connections with others via a smartphone (Kwak, Kim, & Yoon, 2018). This study is based on the following hypotheses: Mothers' abusive parenting predicts young adolescents' problematic smartphone use; and the relationship between mothers' abusive parenting and young adolescents' problematic smartphone use is moderated by trusting peer relationships and/or the amount of time spent hanging out with peers. Methods: Participants consisted of 506 middle school students aged between 13 and 15 years in South Korea. Results & conclusions: Using multiple hierarchical regression, the results reveal the effect of mothers' abusive parenting on adolescents' problematic smartphone use, and the moderating effect of the amount of time spent hanging out with peers on the relationship between abusive parenting and problematic smartphone use. Adolescents' perceived trusting peer relationships did not moderate the relationship between the two variables. These results indicate that forming at least a minimum quantity of peer relationship contributes to fulfilling the need to belong, thereby buffering the impact of mothers' abusive parenting on adolescents' problematic smartphone use.