Validation of the brief screening of Social Network Addiction Risk

Introduction: This study aims to develop a valid and reliable tool to evaluate social network behavior in young adults.

Methods: To validate the Brief screening for Social Network Addiction Risk (BSNA), data from 776 Italian young adults (64.3 % of women) were collected. The suitability of the instrument was statistically assessed. Experts' opinions, item reliability, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, and convergent validity were adopted to validate the BSNA items. Internal consistency coefficients were also calculated.

Results: According to the statistical analyses, a 2-factor structure was confirmed. The two scales of BSNA assess behavior and motivation frame of social networks use. The second order model proved a global score of risk of social network addiction. Fit indices highlighted the high goodness of the model. Preliminary analyses of prevalence estimated that about 18 % of participants reported problematic Social Network use, which may overtime represent a marker of addictive behavior.

Conclusion: The final version of the BSNA, with 11 items evaluated on a 5-point Likert- scale, is a short but valid tool for measuring the risk of social network addiction. It represents a promising screening tool aimed to not overpathologize a behavior, but to furnish adequate insight into this phenomenon.