The present study investigates the mechanisms underlying the relationship between parental depression and children’s smartphone addiction. It explores the effects of parental depression on children’s smartphone addiction, as well as the mediating roles of parental neglect and children’s self-esteem in this relationship, which multiplies sequentially. We utilize data—comprising 2,396 children and their parents—from the National General Survey on Korean Children, using parent–child dyads. First, a hierarchical regression analysis shows that parental depression significantly and positively predicts children’s smartphone addiction (B = .29, SE = .03, p < .001). Second, Hayes’s PROCESS macro (Model 6), executed to test the mediation effects, reveals that the effect of parental depression on children’s smartphone addiction is significantly mediated by parental neglect (B = .07, Boot SE = .01, 95% Boot CI [.05, .10]) and children’s self-esteem (B = .12, Boot SE = .01, 95% Boot CI [.10, .14]). Moreover, the serial mediation model’s results support that parental neglect and children’s self-esteem serially mediate the relationship between parental depression and children’s smartphone addiction (B = .02, Boot SE = .004, 95% Boot CI [.01, .03]), implying that a higher level of parental depression is sequentially associated with increased parental neglect that reduces children’s self-esteem and consequently accelerates their smartphone dependence. The theoretical and practical implications of the results as well as the directions for future research are discussed.

本研究调查了父母抑郁症与儿童智能手机成瘾之间关系的潜在机制。它探讨了父母抑郁对儿童智能手机成瘾的影响，以及父母忽视和儿童自尊在这种关系中的中介作用，它们依次增加。我们利用来自韩国儿童全国综合调查的数据——包括 2,396 名儿童及其父母，使用亲子对偶。首先，分层回归分析表明，父母抑郁显着正向预测儿童的智能手机成瘾（B = .29, SE = .03, p< .001）。其次，Hayes 的 PROCESS 宏（模型 6），用于测试中介效应，表明父母抑郁对儿童智能手机成瘾的影响显着由父母忽视介导（B = .07，Boot SE = .01，95% Boot CI [.05, .10]) 和儿童的自尊 ( B = .12, Boot SE = .01, 95% Boot CI [.10, .14])。此外，序列中介模型的结果支持父母忽视和儿童自尊在父母抑郁和儿童智能手机成瘾之间的关系中发生序列中介（B = .02，Boot SE= .004, 95% Boot CI [.01, .03])，这意味着更高程度的父母抑郁与父母忽视的增加相关，这会降低孩子的自尊，从而加速他们对智能手机的依赖。讨论了结果的理论和实践意义以及未来研究的方向。