Background: Facebook is by far the most popular social network. Thus, it is important to use a valid measuring tool. This study aimed to validate an Arabic version of the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS).
Methods: It was a cross-sectional study conducted among public secondary schools, within the city of Sousse, Eastern Tunisia over 2 months. Students completed self-administrated questionnaires. The revised test-retest version of the scale was given to a sample of ten pilot students in order to check the readability of the translation. Internal consistency was measured using Cronbach's alpha coefficient in order to assess the extent to which the BFAS items were interrelated.
Results: A total of 1399 participants took part in the study (60.5% females). Among 1353 students who are using Facebook, 71.8% had non-problematic use. The median score of addiction was 13 ranging from 6 to 30. The median time spent each day on Facebook was 3 h. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.87. Students with higher Facebook addiction scores were significantly more addicted to video games (p = 0.001), and more depressed (p < 0.0001).
Conclusion: The Arabic-BFAS is consistent as a screening test for Facebook addiction among secondary school students due to having good reliability and validity.
Keywords: addiction; behavior; scale; social networking; validation.
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.