Adaptation and validation of the Moroccan dialect version of the nomophobia questionnaire (NMP-Q): Among university students

Hicham Khabbache; Driss Ait Ali; Abdelhalim Cherqui; Abdelaziz Allioui; Zakaria Abidli; Joumana Elturk; Murat Yildirim; Nicola Luigi Bragazzi; Gabriella Nucera; Lukasz Szarpak; Amelia Rizzo; Francesco Chirico

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e36256

Adaptation and validation of the Moroccan dialect version of the nomophobia questionnaire (NMP-Q): Among university students

Heliyon. 2024 Aug 13;10(17):e36256. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e36256. eCollection 2024 Sep 15.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Director of the UNESCO Chair "Lifelong Learning Observatory" (UNESCO/UMSBA). Laboratory of «Morocco: History, Theology and Languages», Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences Fès-Saïss, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez, Morocco.
² Laboratory of «Morocco: History, Theology and Languages», Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences Fès-Saïss, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez, Morocco.
³ Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences Fès-Dhar El Mehraz, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez, Morocco.
⁴ Faculty of Science, Ibn Tofail University, Kenitra, Morocco.
⁵ Health Sciences Laboratory, International University of Casablanca, Morocco.
⁶ Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science and Letters, Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen University, Ağrı, Turkey. Department of Social and Educational Sciences, Lebanese American University, Beirut, Lebanon.
⁷ Laboratory for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (LIAM), Department of Mathematics and Statistics, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁸ Department of Emergency, Fatebenefratelli Hospital, ASST Fatebenefratelli and Sacco, Milan, Italy.
⁹ Institute of Outcomes Research, Maria Sklodowska-Curie Medical Academy, Warsaw, Poland.
¹⁰ Department of Clinical Research and Development, LUXMED Group, Warsaw, Poland.
¹¹ Henry JN Taub Department of Emergency Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine Houston, Houston, TX, United States.
¹² Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Messina, 98122, Messina, Italy.
¹³ Post-Graduate School of Occupational Health, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy.

Abstract

The fear of being without a mobile phone, known as nomophobia, is a new psychological issue that has arisen with the widespread use of information and communication technologies. To understand this phenomenon, more research is needed. The present study aimed to assess the factor structure of the Moroccan dialect version of the Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q) among a sample of Moroccan university students. The study included 400 students selected by convenience sampling from two universities (Fez and Rabat). First, an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted using the principal component method with Varimax rotation. Then, a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) were carried out. The results showed that a 20-item, four-factor model was the best fit for the data collected from the sample, indicating cross-cultural validity and the robustness of the NMP-Q's structure. This suggests that the Moroccan version of the NMP-Q is useful for assessing nomophobia behavior among Moroccan university students.

Keywords: Moroccan Arabic; Morocco; NMP-Q; Nomophobia questionnaire; University students.