Validation of the Persian Smartphone Addiction Scale Among Tehran University Students, Iran

Smartphone addiction is a recent phenomenon which has been increasing tremendously as new applications are being published, especially in Southeast Asia. In Iran, smartphone users are estimated to be around 46 million people and are increasing day by day. This study was conducted to evaluate the psychometric properties of persian smartphone addiction scale (PSAS) among students of Tehran universities, Iran. This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2017. The PSAS and Internet addiction test (IAT), which has been already validated in Iran, were completed by 200 students studying at Tehran universities who were selected by the multistage random sampling method A comparison was made between SAS and IAT in order to find out the concurrent validity. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was 0.7 (P = 0.00), showing a strong positive correlation between PSAS and Persian IAT. The optimal cutoff score was more than 106 for at-risk individuals by analyzing the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The sensitivity and specificity of the test were 80% and 86%, respectively, and the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.93 for the total scale. Test-retest reliability of PSAS was high, with an interclass correlation of 0.996. Sample adequacy for factor analysis as represented by Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin (0.92) and Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant (P = 0.00), indicating that factor analysis was useful. PSAS is a valid and reliable tool for evaluating smartphone addiction in the Iranian population.