Partner phubbing and depression among married ...

Personality and Individual Differences 110 (2017) 12–17

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Partner phubbing and depression among married Chinese adults: The roles of relationship satisfaction and relationship length Xingchao Wang, Xiaochun Xie, Yuhui Wang, Pengcheng Wang, Li Lei ⁎ The Center of Internet + Social Psychology, Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, No. 59 Zhongguancun Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100872, China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history: Received 3 December 2016 Received in revised form 8 January 2017 Accepted 9 January 2017 Available online xxxx Keywords: Partner phubbing Relationship satisfaction Depression Relationship length

a b s t r a c t Although relationship satisfaction has been shown to play an important role in married adults' depression, it is less clear whether partner phubbing can undermine relationship satisfaction and increase the risk of depression. The current study investigated the indirect effect of partner phubbing on depression via relationship satisfaction and the moderating role of relationship length in this indirect effect. Two hundred forty-three married Chinese adults participated in the study. The results indicated that partner phubbing had a negative effect on relationship satisfaction, and relationship satisfaction had a negative effect on depression. Partner phubbing had an indirect positive impact on depression via relationship satisfaction, and this indirect effect only existed among those married more than seven years. Results indicate that partner phubbing is a significant risk factor for depression among those married more than seven years. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Depression is one of the most common mental health disorders and affects approximately 350 million people worldwide (Liu et al., 2016). As in other countries, depression is also a major public health issue in China, with the prevalence rates ranging from 5.9% to 30.39% in Chinese adults (Jiang, Li, Chen, & Chen, 2015; Lei, Xiao, Liu, & Li, 2016). Most importantly, depression creates a heavy burden on society. Thus, it is of theoretical and practical importance to explore those factors that may contribute to a decrease or increase in depression. According to the marital discord model of depression (MDMD), marital discord is a significant risk factor for depression because marital discord impairs spousal support and couple cohesion (Beach, Katz, Kim, & Brody, 2003; Beach & O'Leary, 1993; Miller et al., 2013). Specifically, lower relationship satisfaction and lower marital satisfaction have been associated with higher concurrent depression and a heightened risk of future depression (Dekel et al., 2014; Miller et al., 2013; Whisman & Bruce, 1999; Whisman & Uebelacker, 2009; Whitton & Kuryluk, 2012b). Despite the robust empirical support for the MDMD (Brock & Lawrence, 2011; Miller et al., 2013; Proulx, Helms, & Buehler, 2007; Wang, Wang, Li, & Miller, 2014), it is less clear that those factors (e.g., partner phubbing) may undermine marital or relationship satisfaction and increase the risk of depression. Partner phubbing is the extent to which your romantic partner or spouse uses or is distracted by his/her cell phone while in your company (Roberts & David, 2016). Considering that time spent on ⁎ Corresponding author at: Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, No. 59 Zhongguancun Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100872, China. E-mail address: [email protected] (L. Lei).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.01.014 0191-8869/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

phone may displace or reduce meaningful interaction with one's spouse (Ahlstrom, Lundberg, Zabriskie, Eggett, & Lindsay, 2012), it is possible that the distractions caused by partner phubbing would undermine relationship satisfaction. Therefore, the current study would examine the effect of partner phubbing on relationship satisfaction among married Chinese adults and explore whether partner phubbing could exert significant indirect effect on depression via relationship satisfaction. 1.1. Relationship satisfaction and depression In the previous literature, there are conceptual models and substantial findings for the direction of the relation between marital or relationship satisfaction and depression (Choi, 2016). The MDMD suggests that marital discord can contribute to an increase in depression for married adults (Beach & O'Leary, 1993). According to MDMD, individuals who are in distressed marriages are more likely to have depressive symptom via two etiological pathways (Choi, 2016; Wang et al., 2014). First, couples who are distressed by their marital relationships are more prone to show hostility, which in turn places them at a higher risk for depression. Second, couples with marital discord are less likely to provide and receive support and thus they are more prone to being depressed from other causes (Beach et al., 2003). Indeed, a great deal of empirical evidence supports the MDMD. Numerous cross-sectional studies have shown a robust correlation between marital or relationship satisfaction and depression (Dekel et al., 2014; Levis et al., 2016; McPheters & Sandberg, 2010; Miller et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2014; Whitton & Kuryluk, 2012a, 2012b; Whitton & Whisman, 2010). Furthermore, results from longitudinal studies can shed light on the stability of this relation. Though often debated, there

X. Wang et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 110 (2017) 12–17

is growing support among researchers for individuals who have high levels of marital satisfaction are less likely to get depression (Davila, Karney, Hall, & Bradbury, 2003; Fincham, Beach, Harold, & Osborne, 1997; Kouros, Papp, & Cummings, 2008). Specifically, marital satisfaction can predict higher levels of depressive symptoms at one year later (Beach et al., 2003), one year and a half later (Fincham et al., 1997), two years later (Whisman & Uebelacker, 2009), and even seven years later (Brock & Lawrence, 2011). In addition, one meta-analysis shows that marital satisfaction is negatively related to depression, with the effect size of − 0.42 for women and − 0.37 for men (Whisman, 2001). Another meta-analysis shows that the longitudinal association between marital quality and personal well-being including life satisfaction and depression was stronger, when personal wellbeing rather than marital quality was treated as the dependent variable (Proulx et al., 2007). 1.2. Partner phubbing and relationship satisfaction Considering that life has become a major distraction from our cell phones, it is of critical importance that increased research attention be focused on the impact that technology use has on relationship satisfaction (Roberts & David, 2016). According to the displacement hypothesis, partner phubbing may negatively affect on relationship satisfaction. This theory suggests that time spent on cell phones may displace or reduce meaningful interactions with one's couples, which may in turn undermine their relationship satisfaction. Similarly, cell phone use during face-to-face interactions makes persons less involved in the conversation, thereby decreasing the quality of the conversation (Turkle, 2011). One explanation for these negative outcomes may be that cell phone users risk mishearing things, which may lead to them asking to repeat or re-discuss information. As a result, the conversation partner of a cell phone user may feel awkward and find the conversation less qualitative (Humphreys, 2005). Some empirical evidence has supported this hypothesis by showing that certain types of mobile technology use may become problematic in romantic relationship by increasing conflict and leading to poor relationship and marital satisfaction (Ahlstrom et al., 2012; Coyne, Stockdale, Busby, Iverson, & Grant, 2011; McDaniel & Coyne, 2016; Roberts & David, 2016; Schade, Sandberg, Bean, Busby, & Coyne, 2013). The presence of smartphone during proximal interactions is negatively correlated with perceptions of emphatic concern and closeness to the conversation partner (Misra, Cheng, Genevie, & Yuan, 2014). For instance, family members become frustrated when others do nonurgent activities on their phones in the presence of others (Oduor et al., 2016), and caretakers who are ‘absorbed’ in their smartphone have poor social interactions with their children (Radesky et al., 2014). Two cross-sectional studies have also shown that partner's playing game and partner phubbing are negatively associated with relationship and marital satisfaction (Ahlstrom et al., 2012; Roberts & David, 2016). Furthermore, two experimental studies indicate that the presence of mobile phones can interfere with human relationships (Przybylski & Weinstein, 2013), and mobile messaging behavior during an offline conversation can lead to more negative impression formation and perceptions of lower interaction quality (Vanden Abeele, Antheunis, & Schouten, 2016). More specifically, mere presence of cell phones can undermine perceived closeness, connection, and conversation quality (Przybylski & Weinstein, 2013). Based on the theory and empirical results discussed above, sufficient evidence suggests that a partner's use of a cell phone while in the company of his or her romantic partner has a negative effect on relationship satisfaction. 1.3. Partner phubbing, relationship satisfaction and depression Although considerable research has established the negative association between relationship satisfaction and depression as well as partner phubbing and relationship satisfaction, much less is known about

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how partner phubbing increase the risk of depression. To our knowledge, there are only two studies that have tested the effects of partner phubbing and technoference on depression (McDaniel & Coyne, 2016; Roberts & David, 2016). Technoference, which is similar to partner phubbing, is defined as everyday intrusions or interruptions in couple interactions or time spent together that occur due to technology including cell or smart phones (McDaniel & Coyne, 2016). They both found that partner's frequently engaging in phubbing behaviors or overuse of technology can directly and significantly affect individual's depression. However, in relation to the associations among partner phubbing (or technoference), relationship satisfaction, and depression, these two studies have not reached an agreement (McDaniel & Coyne, 2016; Roberts & David, 2016). More specifically, Roberts and David (2016) found that partner phubbing had an indirect positive impact on individuals' depression through relationship satisfaction and ultimately life satisfaction. In contrast, McDaniel and Coyne (2016) found that technoference did not indirectly impact depression through its impact on relationship satisfaction. It is important to note, however, that there may be one design problem in these two studies. They both ignored the fact that relationship length may moderate the association among partner phubbing, relationship satisfaction, and depression. As suggested by Roberts and David (2016), “it may be that some people are less likely to overuse technology, or frequently engaging in partner phubbing behaviors, in the early stages of their relationships.” Therefore, the indirect effect of partner phubbing on depression via relationship satisfaction may only exist among individuals in long-term marriages (e.g., marriage more than seven years). For instance, husbands in longer term relationships are more vulnerable to depressive symptoms in the context of marital problems compared with husbands in shorter term relationships (Kouros et al., 2008). Based on the above limitations, the aim of the current study was to examine the indirect effect of partner phubbing on depression via relationship satisfaction among married Chinese adults. According to the marrital discort model of depression (Beach et al., 2003), individuals with high relationshiop dissatisfaction are less likely to receive from partners and thus they are more prone to being depressed from other causes, such as partner phubbing and technoference (McDaniel & Coyne, 2016; Roberts & David, 2016). Therefore, we proposed that partner phubbing would have an indirect positive impact on individual's depression via relationship satisfaction. 1.4. The role of relationship length Although partner phubbing may impact individual's depression through the mediating role of relationship satisfaction, not all married adults who experience partner phubbing or technoference homogeneously experience decreased levels of relationship satisfaction and suffer from depression. Heterogeneity of outcomes may originate from relationship characteristics that moderate (i.e., buffer or exacerbate) the impact of partner phubbing on relationship satisfaction and depression, for example, relationship length. Identification of such moderators would help determine which individuals may be most at risk for relationship dissatisfaction and depression in the face of partner phubbing. According to interdependence theory, individual's outcomes are inherently influenced by their partners—what individual does or feels in a relationship can affect her/his partner (Rodriguez, Neighbors, & Knee, 2013). This pattern means that both positive and negative daily experiences may be shared or transmitted in interdependent couples, especially in longer term couples (Totenhagen, Butler, Curran, & Serido, 2015). As a consequence of interdependence, the behaviors of one dyad member likely affect the outcomes of the other dyad member in longer term relationships (McNulty & Karney, 2002; Rodriguez et al., 2013). However, this effect may be small or does not even exist in shorter term relationships. Therefore, we expected that individuals in longer term relationships would be more vulnerable to relationship dissatisfaction and depression in the context of partner phubbing

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compared with individuals in shorter term relationships. This expectation is supported by some empirical studies. More specifically, relationship length can significantly moderate the relation between marital satisfaction and depressive symptoms among couples in established relationships as well as relationship satisfaction and depression in emerging adults (Kouros et al., 2008; Whitton & Kuryluk, 2012b). Similarly, the length of romantic relationship can moderate the relation between Facebook use and Facebook-related conflict (Clayton, Nagurney, & Smith, 2013). To our knowledge, no studies have examined relationship length as a moderator of the direct and/or indirect relations between partner phubbing and depression. Based on the interdependence theory and empirical evidence, we proposed the direct and/or indirect relations between partner phubbing and depression via relationship satisfaction would vary as a function of relationship length.

2.3. Procedure Ethical approval was gained from the first authors' University Ethics Committee. Participants filled out online questionnaires regarding partner phubbing, relationship satisfaction, depression, and demographics variables through http://www.sojump.com/. This hyperlink was distributed through WeChat, email, and online forums. Only those who completed the consent form were gained access to the questionnaires. This method has been used successfully by other studies collecting data online (Kong, Wang, & Zhao, 2014; Kong, Zhao, & You, 2012; Meyerson & Tryon, 2003). 3. Results 3.1. Bivariate analyses

2. Method 2.1. Participants Data from 243 married adults (156 women) were used in the current study. For the total sample, 192 of the married adults came from urban and 51 came from countryside. Among the adults 42% were of 26–35 years, 32.9% were of 36–45 years, 16.9% were of 46–55 years, and 8.2% were of 56 years or older. Adults' educational qualifications were recorded in five categories, with 6.2% having junior high school or lower level; 11.5% having senior high school; 19.8% having junior college's degree; 47.7% having bachelor's degree; and 14.8% having master's degree or higher level. 2.2. Measures 2.2.1. Partner phubbing The Partner Phubbing Scale developed by Roberts and David (2016) was used to assess participants' partner phubbing. It included nine items, such as “My partner glances at his/her cell phone when talking to me.” Items were assessed on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (all at time). Responses to all items were summed to produce a composite score, with higher scores indicating higher levels of partner phubbing. The Cronbach's α was 0.80. 2.2.2. Relationship satisfaction The four-item satisfaction scale indexed participants' global evaluation of their relationships quality (Murray, Holmes, Griffin, & Derrick, 2015). It includes item such as, “I am extremely satisfied with my relationship.” Items were assessed on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (completely true). Responses to all items were summed to produce a composite score, with higher scores indicating higher levels of relationship satisfaction. The Cronbach's α was 0.86. 2.2.3. Depression The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale was used to assess depression, which consists of 20 items. Example item is, “I thought my life had been a failure.” Items were assessed on a fourpoint Likert scale ranging from 0 (rarely or none of the time) to 3 (most or all of the times) and were summed to produce a composite score. The Cronbach's α was 0.91. 2.2.4. Relationship length Considering that currently half of all divorces occur within the first seven years of marriage (Amato & Cheadle, 2005), relationship length was assessed via a self-reported single-item with the following two options: 1 = seven years or less and 2 = eight years or over. Based on the self-reported length of the marriage, 51% adults married less than seven years.

Means, standard deviations, and correlations for all variables are presented in Table 1. Partner phubbing was negatively correlated with relationship satisfaction, and positively correlated with depression. Relationship satisfaction was negatively correlated with depression. 3.2. Measurement model Before testing the structural model, we confirmed the factor structure of the model. The measurement model included three latent factors including partner phubbing, relationship satisfaction, and depression. An initial test of the measurement model revealed a satisfactory fit to the data: χ2 (62, N = 243) = 152.17, p b 0.001; RMSEA = 0.078; and CFI = 0.95. All the factor loadings for the indicators on the latent variables were high and reliable (p b 0.001), and indicating that all the latent factors were well represented by their respective indicators. 3.3. Structural model Structural equation modeling was conducted to examine the mediating role of relationship satisfaction. The direct path coefficient from partner phubbing to depression (γ = 0.20, p b 0.01) in the absence of the mediator was significant. A partially-mediated model with a mediator and a direct path from partner phubbing to depression revealed an adequate fit to the data: χ2 (62, N = 243) = 152.17, p b 0.001; RMSEA = 0.078; and CFI = 0.95. That is, relationship satisfaction partially mediated the relationship between partner phubbing and depression (see Fig. 1). As shown in Fig. 1, partner phubbing significantly and negatively predicted relationship satisfaction (γ = − 0.15, p b 0.05), and relationship satisfaction significantly and negatively predicted depression (γ = −0.25, p b 0.001). In order to assess the size of the indirect effect and confidence intervals (CI), a bootstrap procedure was applied. We generated 1000 bootstrapping samples from the original data set (N = 243) by random sampling. The indirect effect of partner phubbing on depression mediated by relationship satisfaction was 0.038 (SE = 0.029, CI = [0.004, 0.103]). Empirical 95% confidence interval did not consist of zero, signifying partner phubbing exerted significant indirect effect on depression via relationship satisfaction. 3.4. The role of relationship length We used multi-group analyses to identify whether the path coefficients differed significantly across relationship length. We compared the first model, which allows the structural paths to vary across relationship length, with the second model, which constrains the structural paths across relationship length to be equal, to examine relationship length differences. The non-significant Chi square differences between the two models, Δχ2 (3, N = 243) = 5.51, p = 0.14. However, relationship length may moderate certain pathways in the partially-mediated model. Therefore, two models were fitted to examine possible


including the MDMD, the displacement hypothesis, and the interdependence theory, the current study contributes to the literature by examining the indirect effect of partner phubbing on depression via relationship satisfaction among married Chinese adults and the moderating role of relationship length in this indirect effect. Findings indicate that partner phubbing can exert significant indirect effect on depression via relationship satisfaction among married Chinese adults. However, this indirect link only exists among those married more than seven years. We discuss each of our research questions in light of the indirect effect of partner phubbing on depression via relationship satisfaction. First, consistent with our hypothesis, the results showed that partner phubbing is an important factor that can undermine relationship satisfaction and increase the risk of depression via relationship satisfaction. That is, individuals are more likely to experiences relationship dissatisfaction when in the face of partner phubbing, which in turn can contribute to an increase in depression for married adults. This is congruent with the MDMD (Beach & O'Leary, 1993), as well as the previous research which showed that relationship satisfaction can significantly predict depression at one year to seven years later (Beach et al., 2003; Brock & Lawrence, 2011; Fincham et al., 1997; Whisman, 2001; Whisman & Uebelacker, 2009). Our findings support the validity of the MDMD and the previous studies in China (Miller et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2014). However, it is important to note that these two studies only examined the relation between marital satisfaction and depression (Miller et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2014). Unlike these two studies, our extends existing research by examining whether partner phubbing could undermine relationship satisfaction and increase the risk of depression, and indicates that partner phubbing can undermine relationship satisfaction and exert significant indirect effect on depression via relationship satisfaction. Second, our finding confirmed the moderating role of relationship satisfaction in the indirect relation between partner phubbing and depression. Particularly, we found that partner phubbing had a significant indirect positive impact on depression via relationship satisfaction only among those married more than seven years. As far as we are aware, our study is the first that report such result in the literature. This finding provides support to the interdependence theory, which posits that the behaviors of one dyad member likely affect the outcomes of the other dyad member in longer term relationships due to interdependence (McNulty & Karney, 2002; Rodriguez et al., 2013). That is, adults who married more than seven years are more vulnerable to relationship dissatisfaction and depression in the context of partner phubbing compared with adults who married less than seven years. This identification can help determine which adults are most at risk for relationship dissatisfaction and depression in the face of partner phubbing.

Table 1 Descriptive statistics and correlations among variables of interest. M

SD

Relationship Relationship Partner phubbing satisfaction lengtha

Partner 28.45 6.38 −0.05 phubbing Relationship 11.77 2.23 −0.11 satisfaction Depression 14.62 9.66 −0.03

Depression

1 −0.13⁎

1

0.13⁎

−0.36⁎⁎⁎

1

⁎ p b 0.05. ⁎⁎⁎ p b 0.001. a Relationship length 1 = marriage more than seven years, 0 = marriage less than seven years.

relationship length differences in relation between partner phubbing and relationship satisfaction. The first constrained the path coefficients from partner phubbing to relationship satisfaction to be equal across relationship length, whereas the second was fitted with that path parameter estimated freely. The significant Chi square differences between the two models, Δχ2 (1) = 4.62, p = 0.032, indicating that relationship length significantly moderated the relation between partner phubbing and relationship satisfaction. However, the results further showed that relationship length did not moderate the link between partner phubbing and depression as well as relationship satisfaction. More specifically, the path coefficient from partner phubbing to relationship satisfaction for those married more than seven years was significant (γ = −0.30, p b 0.05), but the coefficient for those married less than seven years was non-significant (γ = 0.001, p N 0.05). The indirect effect of partner phubbing on depression via relationship satisfaction for those married more than seven years was 0.055 (SE = 0.050, CI = [0.007, 0.189]), and empirical 95% confidence interval did not consist of zero. In contrast, the indirect effect of partner phubbing on depression via relationship satisfaction for those married less than seven years was 0.000 (SE = 0.039, CI = [−0.055, 0.071]), and empirical 95% confidence interval consisted of zero. This showed that partner phubbing had a significant indirect positive impact on depression via relationship satisfaction only among those married more than seven years. 4. Discussion The effect of relationship satisfaction on depression among married adults has garnered considerable empirical support (Davila et al., 2003; Fincham et al., 1997; Kouros et al., 2008). However, it is less clear that those factors may undermine relationship satisfaction and increase the risk of depression. Based on the integration of existing theories

RS1 .88***

15

RS2

RS3

.93*** .82***

RS4 .54***

Relationship Satisfaction PP1

D1 .92***

.68***

-.15*

-.25***

D2 .93***

PP2 PP3

.72*** .82*** .68***

PP4

Partner Phubbing

.16*

Depression

.84***

D3

.74*** .46***

D4 D5

Fig. 1. The mediating effect of relationship satisfaction. Note. Factor loading are standardized. PP1-PP4 = four parcels of partner phubbing; RS1-RS4 = four items of relationship satisfaction; D1-D5 = five parcels of depression. *p b 0.05;***p b 0.001.

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It is important to note that two studies have explore the relations among partner phubbing (or technoference), relationship satisfaction, and depression, but they didn't reach an agreement (McDaniel & Coyne, 2016; Roberts & David, 2016). It is possible that these two studies both ignored some marital or individual characteristics, such as relationship commitment and marital status, which may moderate the impact of partner phubbing on relationship satisfaction and depression. Although the current study extends existing research by testing the moderating effect of relationship length, this is clearly an area that needs further exploration. Several important limitations should be addressed. First, this research was cross-sectional in design. Consequently, readers should be cautious about causal inferences. Second, the majority of the sample was female, which might affect the validity of the current study. Third, this research only examined the effect of partner phubbing and relationship satisfaction on one's own depression. However, a spouse's marital distress can create less support and more hostility in their relationship, which puts the other spouse at increased risk to experience depression. Thus, further study should explore the actor–partner effect of phubbing and relationship satisfaction on depression. Fourth, considering that currently half of all divorces occur within the first seven years of marriage (Amato & Cheadle, 2005), relationship length was recorded as a categorical variable, but not a continuous variable. Further study can investigate relationship length as a continuous variable. Finally, although collecting data online is (1) reliable, (2) valid, (3) reasonably representative, (4) cost effective, and (5) efficient (Meyerson & Tryon, 2003), it may be limited with regard to generalization as a convenience sample. Despite limitations, the current study has several theoretical and practical contributions. From a theoretical perspective, it provides an empirical framework for the researchers through testing the indirect effect of partner phubbing on depression and the moderating effect of relationship length. This result can shed light on the underlying mechanism between partner phubbing and depression and expand previous literature. From a practical perspective, our findings may help to design effective psychological interventions to prevent and reduce married adults' depression. Given the indirect of partner phubbing on depression via relationship, interventions should development strategies to improve married adults' relationship satisfaction in the face of partner phubbing, such as, stop phubbing programs and couple therapy. Moreover, the current study finds that adults married more than seven years are most at risk for relationship dissatisfaction and depression in the face of partner phubbing. This can help to design effective interventions to prevent depression.

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