The Psychometric Properties of the Arabic Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale

Abstract

The rapid development of internet technology has substantially improved individuals’ social media use. However, a minority group of individuals may experience social media addiction. In order to help healthcare providers in Algeria identify potential individuals with social media addiction, the present study translated a commonly used instrument (i.e., the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale [BSMAS]) to Arabic and validated the Arabic BSMAS. A cross-sectional study design, via convenience sampling, comprised 757 Algerian university students (485 females; mean [SD] age = 21.41 [2.87] years) who completed the following scales in Arabic in classroom settings: the BSMAS, the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D). A unidimensional-factor structure was verified for the BSMAS with the support of confirmatory factor analysis (comparative fit index = 0.966; Tucker-Lewis index = 0.943) and Rasch analysis results (infit mean square = 0.83 to 1.16; outfit mean square = 0.82 to 1.15). Moreover, the BSMAS had acceptable internal consistency (α = 0.74; ω = 0.78) with adequate factor loadings (range between 0.402 and 0.670) and item-total correlations (range between 0.349 and 0.529) for all items. The Arabic BSMAS was also found to be measurement invariant across gender. Furthermore, the Arabic BSMAS was significantly associated with the CES-D (r = 0.290; p < 0.001) and SWLS (r = − 0.232; p < 0.001). The present study demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties of the Arabic BSMAS in an Arabic context, specifically in Algeria. These findings have important implications for researchers and practitioners working with Arabic-speaking populations in assessing and addressing problematic social media use while also pointing to areas for future research and intervention.