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The impact of parental phubbing has attracted the attention of researchers, especially concerning adolescents’ online behavior. However, limited research has studied the influence of parental phubbing on interpersonal aggression, including the underlying mechanism. Grounded in parental acceptance–rejection theory, the present study investigated the association between parental phubbing and interpersonal aggression as well as the mediating role of rejection sensitivity among adolescents. Additionally, school climate was explored as a moderator based on social ecological theory. The multiple questionnaires were completed by 914 Chinese adolescents ( M = 12.61; SD = 1.73; 49.78% girls). The results revealed a positive correlation between parental phubbing and aggression, which was mediated by rejection sensitivity. That is, adolescents who experienced parental phubbing were more likely to exhibit rejection sensitivity, which further triggered aggression. Moreover, school climate acted as a moderator in the model. Specifically, we found no significant moderating effect of school climate on parental phubbing and aggression. However, school climate moderated the relationship between rejection sensitivity and aggression. A positive school climate buffered the associations of rejection sensitivity and aggression. Additionally, school climate moderated the relationship between parental phubbing and rejection sensitivity. The relationship between parental phubbing and rejection sensitivity became nonsignificant when adolescents were in a negative school climate, and those adolescents reported higher rejection sensitivity whether they experienced parental phubbing or not. Parental phubbing was more strongly associated with adolescents’ rejection sensitivity in a positive school climate. With a lower level of parental phubbing, rejection sensitivity is sharply reduced. The results deepen our understanding of the relationship between parental phubbing and aggression and its underlying mechanisms. It also implicates preventative interventions to reduce the risk of parental phubbing in interpersonal aggression among adolescents.

The COVID-19 pandemic has given the global e-commerce market a strong boost and concerns have been raised about intensified work stress and its consequences on health and safety. China has soon become the market leader and the rapid adoption of last-mile technology and app-based work models means that work stress associated with the use of technology (“technostress”) is under-researched. This study set out to explore what work stressors couriers in China experience and how techno-stressors interacted with other work stressors, following the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) framework. We conducted 14 semi-structured interviews with frontline couriers in May-June 2021 in China. Five major themes were identified: general (working conditions), algorithmic management, customer sovereignty, economic precarity and networked support. A novel contribution of the study is the identification of a new stressor: techno-dominance that we define as technology-induced worker vulnerability when labour relations and managerial functions traditionally fulfilled by humans are replaced by technology systems. It can be characterised as algorithmic controls, opaque system logic, extended social controls and lack of organizational (human) support. Technology associated benefits were categorised as techno-resource, including flexible hours, intelligent systems and app-based information & trainings. Some benefits were conditional, e.g. gamification where participants became motivated or frustrated depending on their job skills, suggesting potential moderators for the demands-stress relationship. Interactions between techno-stressors and other working conditions were also found, as techno-overload, techno-invasion, techno-complexity and techno-dominance intensified work stress.