Cross Cultural Adaptation and Psychometric Evaluation of the Short Version of Smart Phone Addiction Scale in the Persian Language

The addiction pattern of smartphone usage has increased concerns about potential complications. The Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS), a self-administered questionnaire, evaluates smartphone usage and dependency. The study’s purpose was to translate and culturally adapt the SAS short-version into the Persian language (SAS-SV-Pr), and evaluate its psychometric properties.

The SAS-SV translation used standardized procedures that involved double-forward and backward translations. A convenience sample, from three medical universities in the city of Teheran (n = 250 students), was recruited to complete the SAS-SV and the Internet Addiction Test (IAT). The content validity index (CVI) and the floor and ceiling effect were considered to evaluate content validity. To evaluate internal consistency and test-retest reliability, Cronbach’s Alpha and the Intra-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC2.1) were utilized respectively. Criterion validity was measured by calculating Pearson’s correlation coefficient for the total scores of SAS-SV-Pr and IAT (Pearson’s r correlation coefficient). Construct validity was evaluated using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and ratified with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

During translation and cultural adaptation, only minor wording changes were performed. The correlation between the SAS-SV-Pr and IAT was good (r = 0.57), which determined validity. There was high internal consistency (α = 0.88), split-half reliability (0.84), composite reliability (CR) (0.78) and test-retest reliability (ICC (2.1) = 0.89). Subsequent EFA demonstrated an ambiguous factor structure, being border-line between one- and two-factors, which explained 50.28% of total variance. The CFA confirmed that the two-factor solution was preferred. Our data did not show floor or ceiling effects.

The Persian SAS-SV is a two-factor structure outcome measure to evaluate the dependency of smartphone users. It has demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties for validity, reliability and factor structure, and is suitable for screening and research aims among Persian subjects.