Development of a Facebook Addiction Scale.
The Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS), initially a pool of 18 items, three reflecting each of the six core elements of addiction (salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict, and relapse), was constructed and administered to 423 students together with several other standardized self-report scales (Addictive Tendencies Scale, Online Sociability Scale, Facebook Attitude Scale, NEO-FFI, BIS/BAS scales, and Sleep questions). That item within each of the six addiction elements with the highest corrected item-total correlation was retained in the final scale. The factor structure of the scale was good (RMSEA = .046, CFI = .99) and coefficient alpha was .83. The 3-week test-retest reliability coefficient was .82. The scores converged with scores for other scales of Facebook activity. Also, they were positively related to Neuroticism and Extraversion, and negatively related to Conscientiousness. High scores on the new scale were associated with delayed bedtimes and rising times.
Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, The Bergen Clinics Foundation, Norway. cecilie.andreassen@psych.uib.no
Cecilie Schou
CS
Andreassen
Torbjørn
T
Torsheim
Geir Scott
GS
Brunborg
Ståle
S
Pallesen
D000293:Adolescent; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D009664:Norway; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D060756:Social Networking; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult