Background The advent of COVID-19 worldwide has led to consequences for people's health, both physical and psychological, such as fear and anxiety.Methods The sample comprised 250 Italian participants who were administered Italian versions of the FCV-19S, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and the Severity Measure for Specific Phobia-Adult (SMSP-A). Several psychometric tests were performed to investigate the validity and reliability of the test including confirmatory factor analysis. Results Analysis of the data showed satisfactory psychometric characteristics and confirmed the scale's unidimensional properties. The seven FCV-19S items had acceptable correlations with the test total (from .443 to .784). Furthermore, the loadings on the factor were significant and strong (from .684 to .897). The internal consistency was very good (α = .871). Construct validity for the FCV-19S was supported by significant and positive correlations with the HADS (r=.649) and SMSP-A (r=.703).

Aim The threats of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) have caused fears worldwide. The Fear of COVID‐19 Scale (FCV‐19S) was recently developed to assess the fear of COVID‐19. Although many studies found that the FCV‐19S is psychometrically sound, it is unclear whether the FCV‐19S is invariant across countries. The present study aimed to examine the measurement invariance of the FCV‐19S across eleven countries. Design Cross‐sectional study. Methods Using data collected from prior research on Bangladesh (N = 8,550), United Kingdom (N = 344), Brazil (N = 1,843), Taiwan (N = 539), Italy (N = 249), New Zealand (N = 317), Iran (N = 717), Cuba (N = 772), Pakistan (N = 937), Japan (N = 1,079) and France (N = 316), comprising a total 15,663 participants, the present study used the multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Rasch differential item functioning (DIF) to examine the measurement invariance of the FCV‐19S across country, gender and age (children aged below 18 years, young to middle‐aged adults aged between 18 and 60 years, and older people aged above 60 years). Results The unidimensional structure of the FCV‐19S was confirmed. Multigroup CFA showed that FCV‐19S was partially invariant across country and fully invariant across gender and age. DIF findings were consistent with the findings from multigroup CFA. Many DIF items were displayed for country, few DIF items were displayed for age, and no DIF items were displayed for gender. Conclusion Based on the results of the present study, the FCV‐19S is a good psychometric instrument to assess fear of COVID‐19 during the pandemic period. Moreover, the use of FCV‐19S is supported in at least ten countries with satisfactory psychometric properties.

The aim of the present study was to test the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Smartphone Application-Based Addiction Scale (SABAS; Csibi et al., International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 16, 393-403, 2018), a short and easy to use six-item tool for screening the risk of addiction to smartphone-based applications. A further goal was to explore the impact on smartphone addiction of several variables related to smartphone use habits, perceived quality of life, and sociability measures. The data were collected online from 205 Italian-speaking volunteers (128 males and 77 females aged 18 to 99 years). The psychometric instruments included in the study were the SABAS and the Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q). Psychometric testing showed that the six items included in the SABAS comprised a unidimensional factor with good reliability (Cronbach's alpha = .890). Therefore, the SABAS appears to be a reliable instrument to assess the risk of addiction to smartphone apps. Moreover, longer daily time spent using the smartphone was found to be positively correlated with the total SABAS and NMP-Q scores, while perceived quality of life and self-reported sociability were found to be negatively correlated with such scores.

Social media use, and specifically Facebook use, has become increasingly popular over the past decade. Despite the many benefits of social networking, a small minority of individuals appear to develop issues surrounding social media use, and more specifically Facebook use. It has, therefore, led some scholars to describe such problematic activity as a behavioral addiction. Such problematic behaviors have been reported in many countries including Italy. The present study validated and examined the reliability and validity of the Italian version of the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS) by conducting a psychometric examination among an Italian sample of adults (n = 217; aged 18 to 68 years). Internal reliability was examined using various indicators, including Cronbach's α, which was excellent (α = 0.94). Results indicated that Facebook addiction was significantly correlated with social media addiction, smartphone addiction, narcissism, depression, and self-esteem. The results of the present study support the use of the Italian version of the BFAS in research and confirms the uni-dimensional nature of the single factor proposed by the original authors.Keywords Behavioral addiction . Social networking site addiction . Social media addiction . Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale . BFAS Social networking sites (SNSs), such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, are virtual communities whose main objective is for users to be able to interact with other people from all over the world, sharing opinions and passions via direct messages or in public virtual spaces such as comments, statuses, and groups (Boyd and Ellison 2007;Kuss and Griffiths 2017). Besides being beneficial to individuals for the diffusion of shared knowledge and potential academic and professional opportunities, connecting with people allows the satisfaction of several basic human needs, such as social support or being able to express one's skills (or some aspects of one's self) with as many people as possible (e.g., Li 2010). The search for friends, social

Objectives Problematic gaming has become a phenomenon of growing clinical relevance due to its negative impact on life and mental health outcomes. Much research has been carried out on its complex aetiology, and some studies have suggested that dispositional mindfulness, mind wandering, attentional control, and maladaptive personality traits may play some role, but they have never been included in the same prediction model. This study used Gaussian graphical models and Bayesian networks to investigate the pattern of association of these constructs and of background and gaming-related variables with problematic gaming in a sample of adult gamers. Method Participants (n = 506) were administered an online survey comprising a questionnaire on background and gaming-related variables and the Gaming Disorder Test, the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire-15, the Mind Wandering-Spontaneous and Deliberate scales, the Attention Control-Distraction and Shifting scales, and the Personality Inventory for DSM-5-Brief Form. Results Gaussian graphical models showed that problematic gaming was directly associated with Acting with Awareness, Disinhibition, Psychoticism, playing more than 30 hr a week, ability level, and playing strategy games. Bayesian networks indicated that the occurrence of high levels of problematic gaming directly depended on the presence of low scores on Acting with Awareness. Conclusions The results suggest that one key feature of problematic gamers can be a high level of spontaneous thinking, either in the form of mind wandering or in the lack of Acting with Awareness, while maladaptive personality traits and attentional control seem to play a less central role.

Excessive problematic sexual behavior in the form of compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD), hypersexuality (HS), and sex addiction has gained increasing credibility in recent years and has led to the development of various psychometric instruments to assess such behavior. However, there is still considerable controversy over the operational definition of such concepts and whether they can be used interchangeably to describe the behavior. One recently developed tool is the Bergen–Yale Sex Addiction Scale (BYSAS) based on the “components model of addiction.” The present study validated the Italian version of the BYSAS. The BYSAS was administered to a large Italian-speaking sample of Italian adults [N = 1230, aged 18 to 67 years] along with psychometric instruments assessing the “Big Five” personality traits, self-esteem, depression, and two other measures of addictive sexual behavior (i.e., PATHOS and Shorter PROMIS Questionnaire–Sex Subscale). Confirmatory factorial analysis supported a one-factor solution. Furthermore, the scale had good internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.787). The BYSAS was positively associated with extroversion, openness to experience, depression, and problematic sexual behavior, and negatively associated with self-esteem, conscientiousness, emotional stability, agreeableness, and age. Based on the findings, the BYSAS is a brief, psychometrically reliable and valid measure for assessing sex addiction among Italian adults.

Research examining online addictions has conceptualized generalized internet addiction as an "umbrella" term comprising the addictive use of various online activities such as gambling, gaming, pornograpgy consumption shopping, and social media use. This has led to the development of many different psychometric instruments to assess specific forms of online addiction as well as ones that assess disordered internet use more generally. One such scale is the nine-item short-form Internet Disorder Scale (IDS9-SF) based on the DSM-5 criteria for internet gaming disorder. Although the IDS9-SF has been validated in a number of languages, it has not been validated into Italian. Therefore, the present study validated the IDS9-SF utilizing an Italian-speaking sample (N = 1477). Data were initially collected from 963 participants and the sample was equally split to carry out exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on the Italian IDS9-SF. Results showed that two items were problematic (i.e., in terms of asymmetry and kurtosis) so a slightly modified Italian IDS9-SF was developed (modifying the two items). Data were then collected from a further 514 participants to test the modified Italian IDS9-SF. The second sample was again equally split, and EFA and CFA were carried out. The modified Italian IDS9-SF was found to be a psychometrically robust measure for assessing the risk of internet disorder among Italian adults.

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