SAS-SV Smartphone Addiction Scale in Mexican University Students

Abstract

Objective. The aim of this work was to validate the statistical significance and unidimensionality of the construct formed by the variables of the revised and short version of the Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS-SV), adapted into Spanish, when applied to Mexican university students. Method. The questionnaires were administered to 244 students of Bachelor’s Degree in Administration of the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Mexico; 174 women and 70 men, aged 17 to 30 years, between August and December 2018. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed, and the parameters of the variables were checked by maximum likelihood and also by Bayesian analysis. The reliability of the instrument was verified through Cronbach’s alpha. As a final analysis, estimates of nonstandardized weights for the maximum likelihood method were compared against Bayesian a posteriori distribution estimates. Results. As a result, the model was found to adequately describe the sample data, presenting very small standard error estimates, and it was validated with Cronbach’s alpha of 0.885. In both Bayesian and maximum likelihood analysis, it is consistently evident that the construct is unidimensional. However, for the sample studied, it was observed that 3 of the variables did not reach a significant weight for the model. Conclusion. It concludes that the variables that measure smartphone addiction on the SAS-SV scale adapted to Spanish, indeed, form a unidimensional construct when applied to Mexican university students, which is consistent with results from previous studies. However, it is identified necessary to conduct further studies, in order to explain the low significance obtained for 3 variables of the model.