Parental rejection and problematic social media use in adolescents: The role of interpersonal strengths and gender

There has been an alarmingly increasing trend of problematic social media use (PSMU) among adolescents during the past few decades, which has led to considerable psychological and behavioral issues. Parental rejection has been considered one of the risk factors of PSMU, as adolescents who are suffering from parental rejection may use social media to compensate for their unmet psychological needs in real life. Meanwhile, a high level of interpersonal strength has been generally regarded as a protective factor against adolescents’ Internet-related behavioral problems. Nevertheless, it may also facilitate adolescents’ online socializing, predisposing them to excessive social networking site use to escape real-life problems (e.g., parental rejection). Therefore, there is a need to empirically document how interpersonal strength moderates the effect of parental rejection on adolescents’ PSMU by considering gender effects, which have been grossly lacking in the existing literature. Based on data collected from 1,874 Chinese adolescents (Mean age = 14.78±1.44 years; 56.46% females), this study examined the associations between mother and father rejection and adolescent PSMU, as well as the moderating effect of adolescent interpersonal strength, with a focus particularly on gender differences. The results showed that 1) both father and mother rejection showed significant positive predictive effects on adolescents’ PSMU while interpersonal strength was negatively associated with PSMU, 2) interpersonal strength significantly enhanced the association between mother rejection and PSMU, and 3) such an effect was exclusively observed in mother-daughter (but not mother-son) and father-son (but not father-daughter) dyads. The findings delineated the mixed roles of interpersonal strength in adolescents’ PSMU and the unique effects in same-gender dyads. Such findings support a dialectical perspective on interpersonal strength as a “double-edged sword” in adolescent PSMU and call for tailor-made practices instead of a “one-size-fits-all” approach in preventing adolescents’ PSMU through promoting interpersonal strength.