Abstract
The Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS) is widely used, but psychometric evidence by applying Item Response Theory (IRT) is lacking. Considering the advantages of this psychometric approach, the aim of study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the BFAS among adolescents and young adults. Participants were 1134 (50% males, Mean age = 20.7, SD = 3.5, range = 14–33 years) Italian high school students and undergraduates. The unidimensionality of the scale was confirmed (χ2/df = 2.8, CFI = 0.99, TLI = 0.98, and RMSEA = 0.04 [C.I. = 0.02–0.06]) and IRT analysis showed that the scale assesses medium and high levels of the trait, and that it is useful in order to discriminate different levels of Problematic Facebook use (PFU) within this range of trait, in which the scale is sufficiently informative. The relationships of BFAS θ scores with theoretically related constructs provided support to the validity of the scale. In accordance with previous studies, BFAS scores were positively correlated with Problematic Internet use and problematic Social Network use, negatively correlated with self-esteem, and positively related to loneliness. The Differential Item Functioning (DIF) analysis showed that BFAS is invariant across gender, and only one item had uniform and small-in-size DIF. Additionally, we tested age invariance. Since only 17% of the BFAS items were non-invariant, we determined that the BFAS exhibited minor non-invariance as a whole. An analysis of the adequacy of the polythetic and monothetic criteria to define the range of the trait indicative of problematic use was also conducted. Overall, this study offers evidence that BFAS is a valuable and useful scale for measuring high levels of PFU among Italian adolescents and young adults.
Highlights
The use of social networking sites (SNSs) has rapidly increased over the last few years. conflicting positions exist, some authors [1] have suggested that SNS use may have the potential to become addictive as some users report cognitive and behavioral symptoms similar to those experienced by those suffering from recognized addictions
To give indications to improve the scoring system of the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS), we looked at the test information function (TIF) by searching for the region of the trait characterized by the highest information, and we analyzed the correspondence between Item Response Theory (IRT) latent scores and traditional summed scores, in order to define a range of the BFAS traditional summed scores that may be considered as indicative of a pathological behavior in relation to the information capacity of the BFAS
Items have an adequate differentiation in measuring the level of the trait around the mean to the high level of the trait, and the scale is sufficiently informative for these levels of the trait
Summary
The use of social networking sites (SNSs) has rapidly increased over the last few years. The term “problematic Facebook use” (PFU) includes both addictive-like symptoms and specific features such as the preference for online social interaction as a means of mood regulation [9,13] The BFAS scores were found to be positively associated with Problematic Internet Use and Internet Addiction [27,28,29,30], fear of missing out [33], social anxiety, loneliness, and depression [26,29,32]. The convergent validity was analyzed measuring the correlation with the Italian version of the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale -BSMAS [41] as both scales concern problematic SNSs use (BFAS more specific and BSMAS more general). The psychometric study of the scale has been carried out by applying classical test theory (CTT), while there are no IRT contributions
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