Chinese college teachers’ work-family conflict and their preschool children’s problem behaviors: the mediating effects of parental phubbing and children’s problematic media use

ABSTRACT

Currently, work-family conflict of college teachers is a common issue, especially when their children are in the preschool stage, which will directly affect the children’s problem behaviors. This study aims to explore the relationship between parental work-family conflict and children’s problem behaviors, and the mediating role of parental phubbing and children’s problematic media use among Chinese college teachers. A total of 234 college teachers and their preschool children (Mean_age= 60.29 months) participated in this study. The results indicate that (1) there is a significant positive correlation between college teachers’ work-family conflict and their children’s problem behaviors; (2) there is a significant mediating effect of problematic media use between work-family conflict and preschool children’s problem behaviors; and (3) Parental phubbing and children’s problematic media use play a chain mediating role between work-family conflict and children’s problem behaviors. The results reveal the influencing mechanism of work-family conflict on preschool children’s problem behaviors.

KEYWORDS:

• Work-family conflict
• phubbing
• problematic media use
• problem behaviors
• college teachers

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank all college teachers participating in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Humanity and Social Science Youth Foundation of the Ministry of Education in China [grant number 22YJC880081]; Education Science Planning Project of Zhejiang Province [grant number 2023SCG038].

Notes on contributors

Yingjie Wang

Yingjie Wang is an associate professor at the School of Teacher Education, Huzhou University. His research interests are mainly focus on children's social and emotional development.

Qianqian Xia

Qianqian Xia is a postgraduate student at the School of Teacher Education, Huzhou University. Her research interests are mainly focus on children's social and emotional development.

Liyue Gu

Liyue Gu is a postgraduate student at the School of Teacher Education, Huzhou University. Her research interests are mainly focus on children's social and emotional development.

Feng Li

Feng Li is an associate professor at Labor Union, Shanghai Normal University. Her research interests are mainly focus on College teachers' professional development.