Recently, researchers have raised their concern about problematic engagement in social media use that significantly impacted users' mental health and daily lives. Therefore, it is important to have a psychometrically sound assessment tool to assess social media addiction. The present study aimed to assess the reliability and validity of the Bangla version of the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) for assessing social media addiction among young Bangladeshi adults. In this study, we utilized secondary data that contained information from 577 Bangladeshi university students. Exploratory factor analysis explored a single latent factor, and confirmatory factor analyses supported this structure. Discrimination indices of items in both classical test theory (CTT) and item response theory (IRT) approach suggested that items could discriminate between low scorers and high scorers in this scale. This scale has good internal consistency, composite, and IRT reliability. Multigroup CFA and differential item functioning bias results suggested this scale would be assessed the same construct across gender and usage duration groups (5 h and more vs less than 5 h). Network analysis results suggested relapse following salience as the core symptoms of social media addiction among young Bangladeshi adults. Overall, results suggested the Bangla BSMAS as a psychometrically sound tool to assess symptoms of social media addiction among young Bangladeshi adults. This scale has practical utility to mental health practitioners as this scale provides information about the core symptoms of social media addiction.
Keywords: Bangla; Item response theory; Network analysis; Reliability; Social media addiction; Validity.
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