Fatma Subaşı TURGUT, Masum ÖZTÜRK, Hasan DUYMAZ, Veysel EFE
European Journal of Therapeutics - 2026;32(3):344-355
Objective: Social safeness and pleasure play an important role in adolescent mental health and are influenced by early attachment experiences. In recent years, exposure to phubbing has emerged as a potential digital risk that may negatively affect these functions. This study examines the mediating effect of perceived phubbing on the relationship between parental attachment and adolescents' social safeness and pleasure. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 138 adolescents (Mean age = 16.2 +/- 1.03 years) recruited from an outpatient child and adolescent psychiatry clinic. Participants completed the Social Safeness and Pleasure Scale, the Generic Scale of Being Phubbed, and the Parent and Peer Attachment Scale. Structural equation modeling was used to test direct and indirect pathways. Results: Parental attachment was positively associated with social safeness and pleasure (beta = 0.402, p < 0.001) and negatively associated with perceived phubbing (beta = -0.376, p = 0.002). Perceived phubbing, in turn, predicted lower social safeness (beta = -0.246, p = 0.012). Among phubbing dimensions, only the "feeling ignored" subscale significantly mediated the link between parental attachment and social safeness (indirect effect: beta = 0.087, p = 0.033). The model accounted for 28.7% of the variance in social safeness and pleasure. Conclusion: Secure parental attachment appears to enhance adolescents' social safeness and pleasure both directly and indirectly by reducing perceived phubbing-particularly feelings of being ignored. This study provides a unique theoretical contribution to the literature by placing phubbing, a digital interaction pattern, within an attachment-based framework.
