The adaptation of the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale to Turkish and the evaluation its relationships with depression and anxiety symptoms

Abstract

Objective: Social media addiction has become a considerable problem with the widespread use of social media. The aim of this research is to examine the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale, which was developed based on the 6-dimensional addiction model. Another aim of the study is to investigate the relationship between social media addiction and anxiety and depression symptoms. Methods: Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale is translated into Turkish by the translation-back translation method. Ex-ploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used to examine the construct validity of the Turkish version of the scale. The reliability was examined by internal consistency and test re-test method. Relationships between social media addiction and anxiety and depression symptoms were analyzed by correlation and regression analysis. Results: As a result of exploratory factor analysis for construct validity, it was found that the scale was in a one-dimensional structure as in the original form. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the one-dimensional model wasan acceptable fit. In the criterion-related validity study, it was found that the scale had a positive correlation with the Internet Addiction Scale. The internal consistency reliability and test re-test reliability coefficient of the scale was found to be acceptable. It was found that social media addiction predicted the anxiety and depression symptoms positively. Conclusions: According to the findings of this research can be said of Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale it can be used in studies to be conducted in Turkey. Preventive studies are recom-mended because of the increase in social media addiction may increase anxiety and depression symptoms.