Parental Phubbing and Children’s Socio-Emotional Adjustment in Early Primary School: An Exploratory Multi-Informant Study

Parental phubbing may subtly interfere with everyday parent-child interactions, yet little is known about its correlates during the early primary school years. This exploratory study examined associations between parental phubbing and socio-emotional adjustment in 58 Italian children aged 6–8 years using a child-parent-teacher multi-informant design. Parents reported their own phubbing, children reported perceived maternal and paternal phubbing, and parents and teachers completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. A structured family drawing task provided complementary exploratory indicators. Estimates varied across outcomes and informants. The largest adjusted estimate linked higher parent-reported phubbing with lower parent-reported prosocial behaviour (β = −0.36), although this same-informant pattern was not mirrored in teacher reports and did not remain robust after false discovery rate correction. Child-perceived phubbing and drawing indicators showed no corrected evidence of convergence with adjustment. The parent-report prosocial estimate therefore warrants focused replication, while the broader pattern highlights the importance of informant and context in early primary school.