Does Psychological Quality Matter? A Moderated Model of Family Screen Exposure and Academic Burnout Among Early Adolescents

Abstract

Drawing on Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, this study examined whether psychological quality and its three dimensions condition the association between problematic family screen use and academic burnout among early adolescents, and whether the wider sampling setting further conditions this association. A total of 1399 fifth- and sixth-grade students were recruited by cluster sampling from two provincial settings in south-west China. Validated scales measured problematic family screen use (9 items), academic burnout (16 items), and multidimensional psychological quality (26 items; cognitive characteristics 7, personal qualities 8, and adaptability 11). Hierarchical regression and conditional process analyses were used to examine the relationships of interest. Problematic family screen use was positively associated with academic burnout (r = 0.45, p < 0.001). The moderating role of psychological quality was specific to particular components rather than uniform across the construct. Adaptability buffered the association, and the conditional effect of screen use fell from 0.88 at low adaptability to 0.04 at high adaptability (interaction B = −0.044, p < 0.001, ΔR2 = 0.047). By contrast, the composite score and the cognitive and personal dimensions amplified the association (B = 0.007, 0.066, and 0.059, respectively), although the composite effect was small (ΔR2 = 0.004). Adaptability was also the only component for which the moderating effect differed between the two sampled settings (three-way B = −0.019, p = 0.020), whereas the corresponding three-way term for the composite score was not significant (p = 0.154). Academic burnout was higher in Yunnan than in Sichuan (p < 0.001) and did not differ between boys and girls (p = 0.872). Because the design is cross-sectional, these findings describe conditional associations rather than causal effects. The results caution against treating psychological quality as a single protective resource: adaptability was the component most likely to offset, and the cognitive and personal components the components least likely to offset, the association between problematic screen use and academic burnout.