Longitudinal effect of parental technoference on adolescents’ school engagement: Problematic gaming matters

Parental technoference, which refers to everyday interruptions in parent-child interactions due to parent’s use of various digital devices, has been demonstrated to be a risk factor for adolescent development. This study explored the longitudinal impact of parental technoference on adolescents’ school engagement, along with the mediating role of problematic gaming. The data were collected in two waves, conducted in May 2023 (T1) and December 2023 (T2). A total of 582 Chinese adolescents (M = 13.21 years, SD = 0.61, 45.2% female) participated. Participants completed the Technology Device Interference Scale, the Online Game Addiction Scale, and the School Engagement Scale. The results found that: (1) T1 parental technoference negatively predicted adolescents’ T2 school engagement; (2) T1 problematic gaming partially mediated the longitudinal relation between T1 parental technoference and adolescents’ T2 school engagement. The findings of this study suggested that parental technoference can reduce the degree of adolescents’ school engagement by increasing their susceptibility to problematic gaming.