Reliability and Validity of Short-Form Generic Scale of Being Phubbed and Phubbing Among Turkish Adolescents and Young Adults

Abstract

Presently, people focus their attention on their phones while communicating. The behavior known as phubbing is considered a new behavioral addiction. It may lead to many problems in the relationships of adolescents and adults. Therefore, we aimed to examine the measurement invariance of the short-form development of the generic scale of being phubbed and phubbing across two study samples among Turkish adolescents and young adults. A team of 12 experts was assigned the task of translating and back-translating the scales in accordance with the test adaptation guide. The data were collected from 451 Turkish adolescents (n = 206 high school students) and young adults (n = 245 university students). The measurement invariance of adolescents and young adults was investigated using a confirmatory factor analysis, in which increasingly strict equality constraints were applied to model parameters. Based on the model’s results, both the three-factor 12-item General Phubbed Being Scale (GSBP) and the four-factor 12-item General Phubbing Scale (GSP) were found to have good construct validity. A measurement invariance analysis showed that both GSBP and GSP were reliable and valid in both sample groups (i.e., adolescents and adults) to measure phubbing. These results will facilitate the identification of phubbing behaviors that adolescents and young adults exhibit and are exposed to. Moreover, this study provides short and effective measurement tools that can be used in studies to prevent and intervene in phubbing behavior. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024.