A new study has suggested that Pphubbing could be damaging your relationship. Pphubbing means ‘partner phone snubbing’ it can also be defined as a situation wherein you get distracted due to your cell phone when you’re along with your significant other.

Baylor University conducted the study and discovered that Pphubbing hurts relationship satisfaction, and has a negative impact on overall happiness.

In a statement, James Roberts, a professor of marketing and co-author of the paper, said, “What we discovered was that when someone perceived that their partner phubbed them, this created conflict and led to lower levels of reported relationship satisfaction”. He said that these lower levels of relationship satisfaction result into lower levels of life satisfaction and, eventually higher levels of depression.

During the study, researchers developed a Pphubbing scale. The scale included statements, such as ‘my partner places his or her cellphone in sight when we are together’ and ‘my partner looks at his/her cellphone when talking to me’. They found that 46.3% of the respondents reported being Pphubbed by their significant other. The study was based on 2 different surveys, representing 453 adults in total in the US

Roberts said that the study findings were astounding, he said that something like cellphone use can weaken an individual’s relationship with his/her romantic partner.

“When you think about the results, they are astounding,” Roberts said. “Something as common as cellphone use can undermine the bedrock of our happiness – our relationships with our romantic partners.”