Does Gender Matter? An Examination of Different Impacts of Parenting Style on Parent-Adolescents Conflicts Over Mobile Phone Use Between Boys and Girls

Parent-adolescent conflict over mobile phone use has emerged as a major concern in recent years, and parenting style has been suggested as a crucial factor in adolescent development and may impact parent-adolescent conflicts. This study thus investigated whether parenting styles had differential effects on parent–child conflicts over mobile phone use for male and female adolescents. A sample of 751 middle school students aged 12–17 years from an eastern province of China participated in the study. Results showed a significant difference in the relationships between four parenting styles and parent-adolescent conflict regarding mobile phone use. Moreover, the relationships between parenting styles and parent–child conflicts over mobile phone use varied by gender. Specifically, male adolescents with permissive parents had fewer conflicts than those with other parenting styles, while female adolescents with uninvolved parents had the least conflicts. Additionally, both male and female adolescents with authoritarian parents had more conflicts than those with authoritative, permissive, or uninvolved parents. These findings suggest that parenting style is crucial in reducing conflicts between parents and their children over mobile phone use, and gender is an important factor to consider when addressing these conflicts.