The Role of Self-Esteem in Parent–Child Conflict and Problematic Smartphone Use Among Adolescents: A Three-Wave Cross-Lagged Study

Although prior research has linked parent–child conflict to problematic smartphone use (PSU), most evidence is cross-sectional, leaving the directionality unclear. Guided by the Interaction of Person–Affect–Cognition–Execution (I-PACE) model, this three-wave longitudinal study examined the reciprocal links between parent–child conflict and PSU and the mediating role of self-esteem. Chinese adolescents (N = 1368; 40% female; Mage = 16.05, SD = 0.85 at baseline) completed self-report measures of parent–child conflict, self-esteem, and PSU at six-month intervals. Cross-lagged panel models (CLPMs) were the primary analysis, and random-intercept CLPMs (RI-CLPMs) served as a sensitivity analysis. CLPMs showed bidirectional predictions between parent–child conflict and PSU, with T2 self-esteem mediating both indirect paths. RI-CLPMs revealed significant between-person associations among parent–child conflict, self-esteem, and PSU; at the within-person level, only T1 parent–child conflict prospectively predicted T2 PSU, whereas the reverse path and within-person mediation were not significant. These findings suggested that the longitudinal link between parent–child conflict and PSU may partly reflect stable between-person differences, with only limited within-person prospective evidence for a conflict-to-PSU pathway.