• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Assessing Problematic Social Media Use in Adolescents by Parental Ratings: Development and Validation of the Social Media Disorder Scale for Parents (SMDS-P)
  • Contributor: Austermann, Maria Isabella; Thomasius, Rainer; Paschke, Kerstin
  • imprint: MDPI AG, 2021
  • Published in: Journal of Clinical Medicine
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.3390/jcm10040617
  • ISSN: 2077-0383
  • Keywords: General Medicine
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: <jats:p>Background: The problematic use of social media (SM) is a rising phenomenon, especially in adolescents. It can be assessed by self-rating screeners such as the Social Media Disorder Scale (SMDS). However, young age or symptom denial might reduce adolescent assessment accuracy. Therefore, the development and validation of a parental scale (SMDS-P) is desirable. Method: A representative sample of 961 parents and corresponding frequently SM-using children aged 10 to 17 years participated in an online study. Factorial analyses were performed to determine item structure. Adolescents’ SMDS self-reports, SM usage time, emotional dysregulation, and academic performance were used to assess validity. The SMDS-P cut-off value was calculated by ROC-analysis. Results: A one-factorial structure of the SMDS-P could be confirmed. The internal consistency was good (Cronbach’s α = 0.85, McDonald’s ω = 0.88) and the accordance between parental and self-ratings moderate (kappa = 0.51). SMDS-P was positively associated with adolescents’ self-ratings (r = 0.68), SM usage time (r = 0.26) and frequency (ϱ = 0.16) as well as with emotional dysregulation (r = 0.35) in a highly significant manner. Conclusions: SMDS-P offers a promising new approach to assess problematic SM usage in adolescence. Further studies including clinical validations are required.</jats:p>
  • Access State: Open Access