Parental Burnout and Children’s Short-Form Video and Internet Game Use: A Specification Curve and Interpretable Deep Learning Analysis

Hypotheses Parenting is not always a joyful experience; it can also involve significant stress and challenges (Roskam et al., 2017). When parents face chronic parenting stress without adequate resources to cope, it can lead to parental burnout (Mikolajczak & Roskam, 2018). Parental burnout is characterized by four core symptoms: overwhelming exhaustion related to the parental role, which can be physical, emotional, or both; emotional distancing from one’s children, where parents minimize emotional investment and provide only basic care; a loss of efficacy, enjoyment, and interest in parenting, leading to attempts to escape the role; and a sense of low self-efficacy stemming from contrasting their current parental self-image with a previous, more positive one (Roskam et al., 2018). A survey across 42 countries found that the average prevalence of parental burnout was 5%, with rates potentially as high as 8% in Western nations (Roskam et al., 2021). Additionally, parental burnout has detrimental effects on the physical and mental health of parents themselves and leads to adverse interactions that affect their children’s development (Mikolajczak et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2021a; Yang et al., 2021). Studies have also showed that parental burnout strongly increases neglectful and violent behaviors towards children (Mikolajczak et al., 2018; Mikolajczak et al., 2019; Mikolajczak et al., 2023). Furthermore, parental burnout is associated with increased parental phubbing, which refers to parents disengaging from their children by using their smartphones during parent–child interactions (Ya et al., 2025). Parental phubbing has been identified as an antecedent to children’s excessive short-form video and gaming using (Li et al., 2023; Quancai et al., 2023; Wang & Lei, 2022; Zhou et al., 2022). However, research on the relation between parental burnout and children’s short-form video or gaming use remains limited, and the underlying mechanisms are not yet well understood, constraining our comprehension of how burnout influences child development. Regarding robustness testing of variable relations, specification curve analysis (SCA) is an important method for enhancing the reproducibility of results. This approach examines all plausible and reasonable combinations of analytical strategies to mitigate bias introduced by selective reporting or other researcher degrees of freedom (Simonsohn et al., 2020). For testing mediating mechanisms, constructing structural equation models is a key method for assessing the significance and model fit of pathways. However, its explanatory power can be limited for paths that are statistically significant but have low effect sizes. Therefore, we integrated interpretable deep learning to quantify and visualize non-linear relations among variables. Specifically, we built a predictive model using TABM and employed SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) analysis to visualize its prediction mechanisms(Gorishniy et al., 2025; Lavelle-Hill et al., 2025). This aids in providing a clearer understanding of the underlying pathways. Accordingly, this study aims to integrate multiverse analysis, structural equation modeling, and interpretable deep learning to examine the robustness of the relation between parental burnout and children’s short-form video and gaming use, and to investigate the underlying mechanisms. The findings are expected to provide insights into preventing children’s problematic electronic media use from a parenting perspective and to inform the development of relevant prevention strategies. 1.1 Parental burnout and children’s short-form video and gaming use In recent years, research on the relation between parental burnout and children’s short-form video and gaming use has three notable gaps. First, the number of studies is limited, and the exploration of underlying mechanisms remains insufficient. To the best of our knowledge, only two studies have examined the relations between parental burnout and adolescent short-form video addiction, and gaming addiction, respectively (Bian et al., 2025; Wang et al., 2025). However, these studies focused primarily on addiction-related factors, such as inhibitory control and psychological need satisfaction, while paying insufficient attention to overt parental behaviors like parental phubbing. From a prevention and intervention perspective, these observable behaviors are easier to identify and modify, making them valuable targets for preventing problematic short-form video and gaming use in children. Second, the associations between parental burnout and short-form video and gaming addiction reported in previous studies have shown only small effect sizes (Bian et al., 2025; Wang et al., 2025). These weak effects may disappear when different covariates are used or in larger samples, potentially leading to contradictory findings and raising reproducibility concerns in psychological research. Yet, no study has conducted robustness tests for these relations. Third, few studies have simultaneously examined both short-form video and gaming use. As the most frequently used entertainment applications among Chinese adolescents (Beijing Municipal Cyberspace Administration Commission, 2024; Lin et al., 2025), these platforms not only provide enjoyable content but also offer entertaining social interactions. Coupled with their personalized content recommendation mechanisms, these features make children from at-risk family backgrounds particularly susceptible to excessive use of short-form video and gaming apps. 1.2 Mechanisms linking parental burnout to children’s short-Form video and gaming use Based on the Balance Between Risks and Resources (BR2) model (Mikolajczak & Roskam, 2018), burnout can cause parents to enter a state of depleted resources, prompting them to adopt coping strategies aimed at conserving resources and preventing further depletion. In a digital context, the cognitive and attentional resources of burnt-out parents may become continually occupied by digital devices, manifesting as parental phubbing. As smartphones serve as a common means of emotional regulation and stress relief, burnt-out parents are more likely to increase phubbing behaviors when facing stress. Additionally, exhausted parents may permit their children to use smartphones as a way to gain temporary relief from daily parenting pressures, which can also lead to children’s excessive smartphone use. Prior research found positive associations between parental phubbing and adolescent short-form video addiction and gaming addiction (Wang & Lei, 2022; Zhou et al., 2022). This view is supported by social learning theory, which posits that children observe and imitate parental behaviors (Bandura, 1977), implying that a child’s increased use of short-form videos and games can be learned from their parent's phubbing. Consequently, this study hypothesizes that parental burnout robustly and positively predicts children’s short-form video use (H1a) and gaming use (H1b). Furthermore, parental phubbing is hypothesized to mediate the relation between parental burnout and children’s short-form video use (H2a) and gaming use (H2b). Design Plan Study type This study employed the cross-sectional design. Study design This study comprises two survey groups: upper primary school students and junior/senior high school students. Using parental burnout as the independent variable, demographic variables and parental phubbing as covariates, and short-form video use and gaming use as separate dependent variables, we conducted a SCA to examine the robustness of the relation between parental burnout and children’s digital media use. Subsequently, we tested whether parental phubbing behavior mediates the relation between parental burnout and children’s short-form video and gaming use. Furthermore, we combined the TABM model with SHAP analysis to visualize the nonlinear relationships among these variables. This study helps clarify the robustness and underlying mechanisms through which parental burnout influences children’s short-form video and gaming use. By employing multiple complementary methodologies, it aims to provide reliable evidence for formulating strategies to prevent problematic digital media use among children. Sampling Plan Data collection procedures Sample 1: the survey targeted upper primary school students. Inclusion criteria were: (a) grades 4 to 6; (b) an age difference between the student and their parent of 20 to 50 years (based on the minimum legal marriage age of 20 for females in China); and (c) informed consent from both the student and parent. Exclusion criteria were: (a) the student was currently taking psychiatric medication; (b) the student had a diagnosed mental disorder; (c) parental divorce, bereavement of a parent, or the student being in a “left-behind” status (with parents living and working away from home). Sample 2: the survey targeted junior and senior high school students. The inclusion and exclusion criteria were same to those for Sample 1, with the exception that eligible students were in grades 7 through 12. Recruitment This study employed a cluster sampling method. In September 2025, electronic questionnaires were administered to students and their parents from 34 schools in northern China via the Wenjuanxing platform, including 29 primary schools, 3 middle schools, and 2 high schools. Informed consent Before conducting data collection, we will provide participants with a electronic consent form, which contains all information about the study, such as the researchers’ affiliation, research purposes, data collection procedures, data storage and preservation procedures, participant voluntariness and entitlement. Participants will complete the survey voluntarily after reading the informed consent materials. Sample size Sample 1: a total of 8,321 paired electronic questionnaires were collected. Following the inclusion and exclusion criteria, question