Abstract
Mobile phone addiction has attracted much attention recently and is showing similarity to other substance use disorders. Because no studies on mobile phone addiction had yet been conducted in Spain, we developed and validated a questionnaire (Cuestionario de Abuso del Teléfono Móvil, ATeMo) to measure mobile phone abuse among young adults in Spanish. The ATeMo questionnaire was designed based on relevant DSM-5 diagnostic criteria and included craving as a diagnostic symptom. Using stratified sampling, the ATeMo questionnaire was administered to 856 students (mean age 21, 62% women). The MULTICAGE questionnaire was administered to assess history of drug abuse and addiction. Using confirmatory factor analysis, we found evidence for the construct validity of the following factors: Craving, Loss of Control, Negative Life Consequences, and Withdrawal Syndrome, and their association with a second order factor related to mobile phone abuse. The four ATeMO factors were also associated with alcoholism, internet use, and compulsive buying. Important gender differences were found that should be considered when studying mobile phone addictions. The ATeMo is a valid and reliable instrument that can be used in further research on mobile phone abuse.
Highlights
The mobile phone has many characteristics that make it attractive to young adults
The ATeMo Questionnaire consists of 25 items covering addictive symptoms, based on the diagnostic criteria of the DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2012)
In assessing the reliability of the ATeMo questionnaire, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated, demonstrating it had excellent internal consistency as seen elsewhere in similar studies in Spain (Chóliz, 2012; López-Fernández et al, 2012; Vanyukov et al, 2012; Chóliz et al, 2016). These coefficients were higher than those obtained in some previous studies (Fargues et al, 2009), where measures were developed according to the criteria for diagnosing symptoms of substance dependence disorders in DSM-IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association, 2002)
Summary
The mobile phone has many characteristics that make it attractive to young adults. There is evidence that mobile phone abuse in related to physical and mental wellbeing problems, including social and psychological disturbances such as attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, disruptive behavior disorders, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, substance use disorders, sleep disorders, and eating disorders (Billieux et al, 2014; Foerster et al, 2015). A co-occurrence has been established between mobile phone dependence and other behavioral disorders such as internet addiction (Chiu et al, 2013), compulsive buying (Jiang and Shi, 2016) and alcohol use (De-Sola et al, 2017a) or use of other substances (Gallimberti et al, 2016). It remains unclear if an individual that develops one addictive behavior (i.e., mobile phone abuse) is more likely to develop another addictive behavior or a substance use problem
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