Abstract
Studies conducted on Social Networking Sites (SNSs) addiction have to a large extent focused on Facebook as a prototypical example of SNS. Nonetheless, the evolution of SNSs has spawn conceptual and methodological controversies in terms of the operationalization of SNS addiction. In order to bring more clarity to this field the present study aimed to investigate the construct validity of the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) in comparison to the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS) among 1099 young subjects (146 Facebook-only users and 953 who had an account on Facebook and at least one additional SNS). Furthermore, the study aimed to investigate the unique contribution of SNS addiction to stress and general well-being above and beyond personality characteristic and Facebook addiction specifically. Participants completed a survey assessing SNS addiction, Facebook addiction, demography, Big Five personality traits, perceived stress, and general subjective well-being. BSMAS had acceptable fit with the data and demonstrated good reliability. Results showed that the scores of BSMAS were strongly associated with those of BFAS and that the relationship between the two measures was stronger in the group of Facebook-only users than in the group of multisite-social networkers. Moreover, SNS addiction was positively associated with perceived stress and negatively associated with subjective well-being after controlling for Facebook addiction and other study variables. Theoretical and methodological implications of the findings are discussed.
Highlights
Social Networking Sites (SNSs) are “virtual communities where users can create individual public profiles, interact with real-life friends, and meet other people based on shared interests” (Kuss and Griffiths 2011 p. 3529)
Due to lack of acceptable model fit, residuals of the first and second items were allowed to correlate on the basis of modification indices, to previous studies concerning the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS) (Atroszko et al 2018; Charzyńska and Góźdź 2014) and the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) (Monacis et al 2017)
The results showed that SNS addiction was positively associated with perceived stress and negatively associated with general subjective well-being even after controlling for Facebook addiction and other studied variables, which is congruent with previous studies (H4 and H6 substantiated; Hou et al 2017; Marino et al 2018b; Pontes 2017; Tromholt 2016; Turel et al 2018; Xue et al 2018)
Summary
Social Networking Sites (SNSs) are “virtual communities where users can create individual public profiles, interact with real-life friends, and meet other people based on shared interests” (Kuss and Griffiths 2011 p. 3529). SNS addiction is by some scholars regarded as a behavioral addiction, emerging from the framework, theoretical work and research on Internet addiction (Andreassen et al 2016; Kuss and Griffiths 2011; Montag et al 2014; Müller et al 2016; van Rooij et al 2017; Young 2009) It has been defined as “being overly concerned about SNSs, driven by a strong motivation to log on to or use SNSs, and to devote so much time and effort to SNSs that it impairs other social activities, studies/job, interpersonal relationships, and/or psychological health and well-being” There has been a rise in the number of studies on SNSs use and abuse, the status of SNS addiction is still to be formally acknowledged
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