Measurement invariance of the short version of the problematic mobile phone use questionnaire (PMPUQ-SV) across eight languages

10/23/2018 12:00:00 AM

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Authors:Olatz Lopez-Fernandez, Daria J. Kuss , Halley M. Pontes, Mark D. Griffiths, Christopher Dawes, Lucy V. Justice, Niko Männikkö, Maria Kääriäinen, Hans-Jürgen Rumpf , Anja Bischof, Ann-Kathrin Gässler, Lucia Romo, Laurence Kern, Yannick Morvan, Amélie Rousseau, Pierluigi Graziani, Zsolt Demetrovics, Orsolya Király, Adriano Schimmenti, Alessia Passanisi, Bernadeta Lelonek-Kuleta, Joanna Chwaszcz, Mariano Chóliz, Juan José Zacarés, Emilia Serra, Magali Dufour, Lucien Rochat, Daniele Zullino, Sophia Achab, Nils Inge Landrø, Eva Suryani, Julia M. Hormes, Javier Ponce Terashima and Joël Billieux

Publication date: 2018

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health

Volume:  15(6), 1213

Link: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/6/1213

 

Abstract: The prevalence of mobile phone use across the world has increased greatly over the past two decades. Problematic Mobile Phone Use (PMPU) has been studied in relation to public health and comprises various behaviours, including dangerous, prohibited, and dependent use. These types of problematic mobile phone behaviours are typically assessed with the short version of the Problematic Mobile Phone Use Questionnaire (PMPUQ–SV). However, to date, no study has ever examined the degree to which the PMPU scale assesses the same construct across different languages. The aims of the present study were to (i) determine an optimal factor structure for the PMPUQ–SV among university populations using eight versions of the scale (i.e., French, German, Hungarian, English, Finnish, Italian, Polish, and Spanish); and (ii) simultaneously examine the measurement invariance (MI) of the PMPUQ–SV across all languages. The whole study sample comprised 3038 participants. Descriptive statistics, correlations, and Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were extracted from the demographic and PMPUQ-SV items. Individual and multigroup confirmatory factor analyses alongside MI analyses were conducted. Results showed a similar pattern of PMPU across the translated scales. A three-factor model of the PMPUQ-SV fitted the data well and presented with good psychometric properties. Six languages were validated independently, and five were compared via measurement invariance for future cross-cultural comparisons. The present paper contributes to the assessment of problematic mobile phone use because it is the first study to provide a cross-cultural psychometric analysis of the PMPUQ-SV

 

Keywords: mobile phone use; smartphone use; Problematic Mobile Phone Use; Problematic Mobile

Phone Use Questionnaire; psychometric testing; measurement invariance