Translation and Validation of Social Media Addiction Scale for Students

Abstract

The focus of the current study was to translate and Validate Social Media Addiction Scale (SMAS) into Urdu. Study was based to establish the psychometric properties of SMAS in Pakistani Culture. Translation and Adoption were accomplished with forward and backward translation method for SMAS. After that it was scientifically pre-tested to validate its constructs and it was found significant. In pre- testing, minimum rating for the equivalence of both English and Urdu version of SMAS with Mean 84.8 and standard deviation 12.617. In the next step, adapted Urdu version was administered on the sample of large population of 516 students with age between 15 to 22 years using purposive sampling technique (M = 81.70 and SD = 15.666). Cronbach’s alpha, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were computed by using SPSS software (version .25) and AMOS software (version .21). Results showed that Cronbach’s Alpha ₌ 0.87. The item total correlation of Urdu SMAS was greater than 0.3. Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis done to check the number of factors in SMAS. The EFA extracted four factors for SMAS Urdu version. After testing the four-factor model in CFA, the analysis showed good fitness indexes (comparative fit index = 0.95; goodness of fit index = 0.97). SAAS Urdu version has high internal consistency and reliability and can be used for research and evaluation objectives in clinical settings in Pakistani society.