BECE. Newsletter 

Vol.7, No.2, 2021 1011 

 

 

 

 

The Effect of Harsh Parenting on Smartphone 

Addiction of Adolescents 

By Qi, D., Lin, Y., & Liu, Q. 
Correspondence to: Qinxue Liu, Associate Professor, Central China Normal 

University, China. Email: qinxueliu@mail.ccnu.edu.cn 

ASED on the questionnaire statistical results of 3,219 students from two 

non-boarding key secondary schools from Wuhan and Shiyan, the study 

published in Psychological Development and Education Research estab-

lished the mediation effect model, regulating effect model, and intermediary 

effect model with regulation to explore the mediating effect of core self-

evaluation in the process of smartphone addiction through harsh parenting 

among adolescents, and also the regulating effect of friendship quality. The 

main results are as follows: 

 According to the analysis of harsh parenting, core self-evaluation, 

friendship quality. And smartphone addiction, it is concluded that all 

the variables were significantly correlated. Thereinto, harsh parent-

ing has a significant negative correlation among core self-evaluation 

and friendship quality; core self-evaluation has a significant negative 

correlation among smartphone addiction and friendship quality; 

harsh parenting smartphone addiction; core self-evaluation was sig-

nificantly positively correlated to friendship quality. 

 A mediating effect model was established with harsh parenting as 

the predictive variable, smartphone addiction as the dependent vari-

able, core self-evaluation as the mediating variable, and gender & 

grade as the control variables. The results showed that core self-

evaluation plays a partial mediating effect between harsh parenting 

and smartphone addiction. 

 A moderating effect model was established with harsh parenting as 

the independent variable, friendship quality as the moderating varia-

ble, core self-evaluation as the dependent variable, and gender & 

grade as the control variables. The results showed that friendship 

quality had a significant moderating effect on the prediction effect of 

harsh parenting on core self-evaluation. For the high friendship qual-

ity group, the core self-evaluation of adolescents decreased signifi-

cantly with the increase of harsh parenting degree, while comparing 

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Vol.7, No.2, 2021 1012 

to the low friendship quality group the decline degree of the high 

friendship quality group was considerably high. 

 Using the structural equation technology to conduct the integrated 

model examination of the two steps above-mentioned. The results 

showed that harsh parenting had a direct effect on adolescent 

smartphone addiction and also an indirect effect on adolescent 

smartphone addiction through core self-evaluation. Meanwhile, the 

effect of harsh parenting on core self-evaluation was moderated by 

friendship quality. 

 

Source: Psychological Development and Education, 2020; 36(6):677-685.