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Portuguese Validation of the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale: an Empirical Study

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International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Previous research on Social Networking Sites (SNSs) addiction have suggest the need to improve assessment of this behavioral addiction. The present study aimed at validating a Portuguese version of the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS), a widely used instrument to assess addiction to Facebook. A study was conducted in a sample of 509 Portuguese adolescent using an online survey. The psychometric properties (construct validity, criterion validity, and reliability) of the Portuguese BFAS was scrutinized. The results from the psychometric analyses suggested that the new validated instrument had excellent psychometric properties. The CFA confirmed the original one-factor solution of the BFAS and criterion validity was warranted. The reliability of the BFAS was supported by satisfactory levels of internal consistency as measured by the Cronbach’s alpha (α = .83), composite reliability (CR = .82), and factor determinacy (FD = .91). Overall, the results provided empirical support for the validity and reliability of the Portuguese BFAS. Moreover, the results were highly comparable with the findings of the original development study of the BFAS and cross-cultural support for the scale was obtained.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Gaming Research Unit, Division of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Burton Street, Nottingham, NG1 4BU, UK

    Halley M. Pontes & Mark D. Griffiths

  2. Department of Psychological Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Cecilie S. Andreassen

  3. The Bergen Clinics Foundation, Bergen, Norway

    Cecilie S. Andreassen

Authors
  1. Halley M. Pontes
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  2. Cecilie S. Andreassen
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  3. Mark D. Griffiths
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Correspondence to Halley M. Pontes.

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5). Informed consent was obtained from all participants for being included in the study.

Funding

This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia [FCT]), grant number: SFRH/BD/112,857/2015 that was awarded to Halley M. Pontes. The supporting agency had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; and preparation, review, or approval of the paper.

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Pontes, H.M., Andreassen, C.S. & Griffiths, M.D. Portuguese Validation of the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale: an Empirical Study. Int J Ment Health Addiction 14, 1062–1073 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-016-9694-y

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