Spanish version of the Phubbing Scale: Internet addiction, Facebook intrusion, and fear of missing out as correlates.

BACKGROUND: Phubbing is an increasingly common behavior that involves using a smartphone in a social setting of two or more people and interacting with the phone rather than with the other people. Research to date on phubbing has measured it using different scales or single questions, and therefore standard measures with appropriate psychometric properties are needed to improve its assessment. The aim of our study was to develop a Spanish version of the Phubbing Scale and to examine its psychometric properties: factor structure, reliability, and concurrent validity.

METHOD: Participants were 759 Spanish adults between 18 and 68 years of age. They completed an online survey.

RESULTS: The results support a structure that is consistent with the original validation study, with two factors: Communication Disturbance and Phone Obsession. Internal consistency was found to be adequate. Evidence of concurrent validity was provided via a hierarchical regression model that showed positive associations with measures of internet addiction, Facebook intrusion, and fear of missing out.

CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that the Spanish version of the Phubbing Scale exhibits appropriate psychometric properties.