Parental Phubbing and Parenting Styles' Effect on Adolescent Bullying Involvement Depending on Their Attachments to Significant Adults

Abstract

Background: Bullying is a current social and educational problem with detrimental consequences in adolescence and later life stages. Previous research has explored the risk or protective factor at different socio-ecological levels, but further integration is needed to examine the relationships of family characteristics. This study examines how parenting style and attachment relate to adolescents’ bullying and cyberbullying, and whether parental phubbing mediates these links. Methods: Grounded in social bonding theory, we surveyed a cross-sectional convenience sample of U.S. college students (N = 545; Meanage = 19.60, SD = 1.41) who retrospectively reported middle/high-school experiences from Massachusetts, Colorado, and Virginia. Measures followed established traditions of bullying involvement, parenting style, and partner phubbing). Linear regressions tested associations among parenting style, attachment to parents/teachers, parental phubbing, and bullying/cyberbullying offending and victimization. Results: Stronger parental attachment and democratic (authoritative) parenting were associated with lower bullying victimization, and teacher attachment was protective for offline and overall offending. Critically, parents’ excessive personal technology use (phubbing) mediated the link between democratic parenting and bullying outcomes: high parental device use attenuated or nullified the protective association of democratic parenting. Conclusion: Findings reaffirm the value of nurturing, boundary-setting parenting and close parent–child/teacher bonds, while highlighting a contemporary risk—parental device-related inattention. Despite rapid technological change, the core need for stable human connection remains central to reducing bullying involvement.