Impact of partner phubbing on negative emotions: a daily diary study of mitigating factors

Abstract

Interactions between romantic partners may be disturbed by a co-present mobile phone use when a partner ignores their interaction partner in favor of a smartphone. This common practice, called phubbing, promotes social rejection and exclusion, hence the partner who gets phubbed may report negative emotional experiences. However, these experiences may be buffered by a cognitive perception mechanism, when the partner's behavior is still perceived as responsive (i.e., understanding or validating). Thus, we hypothesize that feeling understood or validated moderate the link between phubbing intensity and negative emotions. To test our hypotheses, we conducted a daily diary study over seven days, using a sample of N = 133 participants living with their partner. Multilevel modeling was applied, to examine between- and within-person processes. The findings indicate that perception of the partner as understanding and validating, despite the co-present mobile phone use, reduces the negative emotional experiences during phubbing, and the interaction effects indicate nuances between phubbing and understanding and validation by partner, which extend our theoretical comprehension and distinguish between the two as separate relationship-related constructs. Our research provides a unique insight into how mechanisms related to couple interactions may reduce negative experiences, a finding that may be useful in future interventions and couples' therapy.