Validation of a Spanish Adaption of a Questionnaire for Measuring Nomophobia among University Students

Abstract

Smartphones are highly useful in contemporary society. However, their use can lead to problems, such as dependency and addiction. Nomophobia is a pathological fear of losing connectedness or not being able to access information or communicate with other people. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the four dimensions of the original version of the NMP-Q questionnaire by Yildirim and Correia using the Spanish version of the questionnaire developed by Gutiérrez-Puertas et al. Similarly, this research aims at assessing whether the questionnaire retains its four-dimensional structure when applied to a population of university students in the area of social sciences at a Mexican university. Using confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis techniques, we determined that nomophobia among the study population can be addressed through the first three dimensions of the original questionnaire, namely, not being able to communicate, losing connectedness, and not being able to access information. A fourth dimension, entitled “giving up convenience”, is mentioned in the literature. However, in this study, this dimension could not be clearly identified with the indicators included in the original questionnaire and was, therefore, omitted from the resulting questionnaire. Nomophobia is a modern phenomenon that is becoming increasingly prevalent in our society. Therefore, it must be studied and addressed. The nomophobia questionnaire presented in this article is a reliable way of taking measurements, as indicated by the research results. Further research should deepen the study of measuring nomophobia and improve the questionnaire through other indicators and conceptual dimensions that help explain this phenomenon in a precise and reliable way.

Validity and Reliability Tests on the Nomophobia Instrument with the Rasch Model

“…This study supports several other studies (Hernández & Moya, 2022), which tested the nomophobia instrument and revealed that nomophobia could be grouped into three dimensions: not being able to communicate, losing connectedness, not being able to access information, and a study by (López -Torrecillas et al, 2019). Furthermore, this study added one dimension of giving up convenience taken from (Yildirim & Uk, 2014) into four items.…”

“…The results of this study indicate a difference in the validity of the questionnaire proposed (Hernández & Moya, 2022;Yildirim & Uk, 2014) to measure nomophobia, which found 20 valid items with three nomophobia dimensions. Meanwhile, other studies (Elyasi et al, 2018;Yildirim & Uk, 2014) removed the last question item.…”

“…Most nomophobia instrument testing was carried out using confirmatory factor analysis. Testing (López -Torrecillas et al, 2019;Hernández & Moya, 2022) has also been performed using the NMP-Q questionnaire modification instrument developed (Yildirim & Uk, 2014). In addition, the CFA test distributed to students in Mexico uncovered that of the 20 nomophobia instrument items, 15 had good validity and were divided into three dimensions: not being able to communicate, losing connectedness, and not being able to access information.…”

Fear of Disconnection: Analysis of Nomophobia among Undergraduate Students according to their Educational Program and Gender

“…The NMP-Q questionnaire was originally formulated in the English language [13]. However, it has been translated into numerous languages such as Persian [14], Chinese [15], [16], Greek [17], Arabic [18], German [19], and Spanish [20], to mention a few. In each of these linguistic contexts, its reliability and validity have been established, as acceptable psychometric properties have been obtained, thereby designating it as a robust tool.…”

Psychometric Evidence of the Arabic Version of Nomophobia Questionnaire Among Physical Education Students

“…This instrument is widely used to assess nomophobia worldwide. From this perspective, several studies have focused on the cross-cultural validation of NMP-Q: in Spain, [36][37][38] in Italy, 39,40 in Portugal, 41,42 in China, 43,44 in Germany, 45 in Greece, 46 Brazil, 47 Indonesia, 48 Iran, [49][50][51] Turkey. 52 Nomophobic symptoms are very prevalent in university students and often affect their academic performance.…”