“Phubbing,” or “phone-snubbing,” is a term used to describe using your phone during a face-to-face interaction, resulting in less attention on the person you’re talking to, and more attention on your phone. Sound familiar?
It’s become all too common, and in this study, a Turkish researcher wanted to know how this behavior impacts our relationship satisfaction. To do so, he conducted an online survey with just over 300 people, where participants reported on their life satisfaction, relationship satisfaction, relationship quality, and exposure to phubbing in the relationship.
And based on the findings, phubbing has a real impact. Namely, results indicated that the people who were exposed to more partner phubbing also reported lower relationship quality and relationship satisfaction. More partner phubbing did not show a significant association with life satisfaction, but the results are more nuanced than that.
Namely, on the flipside, higher levels of relationship satisfaction were linked to higher levels of life satisfaction, with higher relationship satisfaction also being linked with lower levels of partner phubbing. So, study author Faruk Caner Yam Ph.D. notes, there is an indirect link between life satisfaction and partner phubbing that is achieved through relationship satisfaction.
