Digital Focus Distortion: Association of Phubbing Perpetrator and Victim Behaviors with High School Students' Physics Scores

Berliana Rachmitasari; Habibi Habibi; Iqbal Ainur Rizki

doi:10.33394/j-ps.v14i4.22761

Authors

Berliana Rachmitasari Universitas Negeri Surabaya
Habibi Habibi Universitas Negeri Surabaya
Iqbal Ainur Rizki University of Auckland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33394/j-ps.v14i4.22761

Keywords:

Phubbing, Phubbing perpetration, Phubbing victimization, Physics achievement, High school students

Abstract

Phubbing may be associated with students’ academic experiences through two distinct roles: engaging in phone-focused behavior while interacting with others and experiencing being ignored because another person is focused on a phone. This study examined the association of these roles with documented physics grades in two separate groups of high school students. The sample comprised 200 students: 74 classified in the phubbing-perpetrator group and 126 classified in the phubbing-victim group. Pearson correlation and separate simple linear regression analyses were used for the two groups. The reported analyses showed negative associations between perpetrator phubbing and physics grades (r = −0.805, p < 0.001) and between victimization by phubbing and physics grades (r = −0.958, p < 0.001). The corresponding squared correlations are 64.8% and 91.8%, respectively, provided that the reported correlations are verified against the original statistical output. Because the groups were mutually exclusive, the results describe separate subgroup associations and do not establish the independent effects of both roles in a joint model. The findings should be interpreted as associations rather than causal effects.

References

Abivian, M. (2022). Overview of phubbing behavior and its effects on adolescents in the era of Society 5.0. Prophetic: Professional, Empathy, Islamic Counseling Journal, 5(2), 155-164. https://doi.org/10.24235/prophetic.v5i2.12786

Agostini, D., & Petrucco, C. (2023). Problematic smartphone use and university students' academic performance. Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society, 19(2), 30–38. https://doi.org/10.20368/1971-8829/1135747

Al-Kamzari, F., & Alias, N. (2025). A systematic literature review of project-based learning in secondary school physics: Theoretical foundations, design principles, and implementation strategies. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 12(1), 286. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-025-04579-4

Avgustis, I. (2023). Respecifying phubbing: Video-based analysis of smartphone use in co-present interactions. In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-15). https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581052

Bappah, L., Mshelia, U. H., & Babaji, M. H. (2026). Phone in hand, mind elsewhere: Phubbing, academic engagement and social connectedness among Nigerian undergraduates. Muslim Education Review, 5(1), 134–164. https://doi.org/10.56529/mer.v5i1.565

Barbed-Castrejón, N., Navaridas-Nalda, F., Ábalos-Villanueva, C., Mason, O., & Ortuño-Sierra, J. (2024). Phubbing in adolescents: Spanish validation of the Phubbing Scale (PS). International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 21(9), 1257. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21091257

Cao, W., Hu, J., Wang, J., Lin, F., & Qiu, H. (2026). The impact of smartphone use on working memory in college students: a functional near-infrared spectroscopy study. Front. Psychiatry 16:1725048. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1725048

Carreño, M.J., Castro-Alonso, J.C. & Gallardo, M.J. (2022). Interest in Physics After Experimental Activities with a Mobile Application: Gender Differences. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Educ, 20, 1841–1857. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-021-10228-4

Creswell, J. W., & Guetterman, T. C. (2024). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (7th ed.). Pearson.

Durnali, M. (2025). Tiny but functional? Unpacking the role of smartphones in driving digital transformation in school administration and teaching practices. Educ Inf Technol, 30, 23111–23140. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-025-13676-5

Dvorakova, K., Emmer, J., Janktova, R., & Klementová, K. (2023). The influence of remote learning environment and use of technology on university students' behavioral engagement in contingency online learning. Tuning Journal for Higher Education, 10(2), 271–300. https://doi.org/10.18543/tjhe.2327

Gao, W., Chen, J., Tu, Z., & Li, M. (2025). Correlational research on college students' physical exercise behavior, academic engagement, and self-efficacy. Frontiers in Psychology, 16, 1428365. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1428365

Gerosa, T., Gui, M., & Büchi, M. (2022). Smartphone Use and Academic Performance: A Pervasiveness Approach Beyond Addiction. Social Science Computer Review, 40(6), 1542-1561. https://doi.org/10.1177/08944393211018969

Glinskiy, V., Ismayilova, Y., Khrushchev, S., Logachov, A., Logachova, O., Serga, L., Yambartsev, A., & Zaykov, K. (2024). Modifications to the Jarque–Bera test. Mathematics, 12(16), 2523. https://doi.org/10.3390/math12162523

Hair, J. F., Jr. (2014). Multivariate Data Analysis. (5th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc.

He, Q., Zhao, B., Wei, H., & Huang, F. (2022) The relationship between parental phubbing and learning burnout of elementary and secondary school students: The mediating roles of parent-child attachment and ego depletion. Frontiers in Psychology. 13:963492. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.963492

Hsieh, C.-Y. (2025). The impact of smartphone usage frequency on university students' academic performance: A meta-analysis of moderating factors. Acta Psychologica, 259, 105374. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2025.105374

Jiang, Y., Lin, L., & Hu, R. (2023). Parental phubbing and academic burnout in adolescents: The role of social anxiety and self-control. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1157209. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1157209

Kalyani, L. K. (2024). The Role of Technology in Education: Enhancing Learning Outcomes and 21st Century Skills (Dr. Lohans Kumar Kalyani, Trans.). International Journal of Scientific Research in Modern Science and Technology,3(4), 05-10. https://doi.org/10.59828/ijsrmst.v3i4.199

Kates, A. W., Wu, H., & Coryn, C. L. S. (2021). The effects of smartphone addiction on learning: A meta-analysis. Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 4, 100114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2021.100114

Kaya, A., Şata, M., Türk, N., Özok, H. İ., & Yıldırım, M. (2025). Reliability and validity of short-form generic scale of being phubbed and phubbing among Turkish adolescents and young adults. Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science, 10(1), 180–187. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41347-024-00428-4

Kobicheva, A., Tokareva, E., & Baranova, T. (2025). How does students' level of phubbing relate to academic engagement and performance variables? European Journal of Psychology of Education,40, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-024-00905-7

Koc, T., & Caliskan, K. (2023). Phubbing phenomenon in educational environments: Examining the impact of supervisor phubbing on student outcomes. Journal of Further and Higher Education,47(1), 15–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2022.2088270

Liao, H. H., Liu, T. C., & Lin, Y. C. (2026). External and internal smartphone distractions: Effects on phone use and learning performance in college classrooms. Instructional Science, 54, 41. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-026-09794-3

Li, C., & Chen, F. (2026). Profiles of academic performance and perceived digital distraction in secondary classrooms. Computers & Education, 250, 105623. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2026.105623

Mauceri, S., & Di Censi, L. (2026). Technological addiction: integrated analysis of the risks of addiction to digital technologies and media in adolescence. SN Social Sciences, 6(3), 94. springer.com/article/10.1007/s43545-025-01295-3

Midway, S., & White, J. W. (2025). Testing for normality in regression models: Mistakes abound (but may not matter). Royal Society Open Science. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.241904

Parmaksız, İ. (2023). The effect of phubbing, a behavioral problem, on academic procrastination: The mediating and moderating role of academic self-efficacy. Psychology in the Schools,60, 105–121. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.22765

Pranoto, B., & Walisyah, T. (2023). Analysis of the Phubbing Behavior Phenomenon on the Low Quality of Teenagers' Social Relationships in Hinai District. JIIP - Scientific Journal of Educational Sciences, 6(7), 5077-5084. https://doi.org/10.54371/jiip.v6i7.2212

Rękas, M., & Burzyńska, J. (2024). Smart youth: Sociodemographic factors, usage patterns, and self-reported vs. actual smartphone addiction among secondary school students. MedRxiv, 2024-04. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.04.17.24305981

Sugiyono. (2022). Research Methods: Quantitative, Qualitative, and R&D (2nd ed.). Alfabeta.

Sweller, J. (2011). Cognitive load theory. In Psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 55, pp. 37-76). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-387691-1.00002-8

Wang, X., Qiao, Y., & Wang, S. (2023). Parental phubbing, problematic smartphone use, and adolescents' learning burnout: A cross-lagged panel analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 320, 442–449. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2022.09.163

Zeng, S., Kong, X., Hu, N., Chen, K., Peng, J., & Cai, D. (2026). Parent-college students phubbing congruence and academic burnout: Exploring the moderating role of rest intolerance. Acta Psychologica, 263, 106309. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106309

Zhou, Z., Qiu, C., & Zhang, Y. (2023). A comparative analysis of linear regression, neural networks and random forest regression for predicting air ozone employing soft sensor models. Sci Rep, 13, 22420 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-49899-0