Assessing Problematic Social Media Use in Adolescents by Parental Ratings: Development and Validation of the Social Media Disorder Scale for Parents (SMDS-P)

Abstract

Background: The problematic use of social media (SM) is a rising phenomenon, especially in adolescents. It can be assessed by self-rating screeners such as the Social Media Disorder Scale (SMDS). However, young age or symptom denial might reduce adolescent assessment accuracy. Therefore, the development and validation of a parental scale (SMDS-P) is desirable. Method: A representative sample of 961 parents and corresponding frequently SM-using children aged 10 to 17 years participated in an online study. Factorial analyses were performed to determine item structure. Adolescents’ SMDS self-reports, SM usage time, emotional dysregulation, and academic performance were used to assess validity. The SMDS-P cut-off value was calculated by ROC-analysis. Results: A one-factorial structure of the SMDS-P could be confirmed. The internal consistency was good (Cronbach’s α = 0.85, McDonald’s ω = 0.88) and the accordance between parental and self-ratings moderate (kappa = 0.51). SMDS-P was positively associated with adolescents’ self-ratings (r = 0.68), SM usage time (r = 0.26) and frequency (ϱ = 0.16) as well as with emotional dysregulation (r = 0.35) in a highly significant manner. Conclusions: SMDS-P offers a promising new approach to assess problematic SM usage in adolescence. Further studies including clinical validations are required.

The relationship between adolescent emotion dysregulation and problematic technology use: Systematic review of the empirical literature

“…Among the included articles, there was a significant positive correlation between adolescents' DERS total scores and their severity of Internet Gaming Disorder ( Amendola et al., 2019 ; Estévez et al., 2017 ; Gutiérrez et al., 2014 ; Paschke et al., 2020) and problematic social media use ( Austermann, Thomasius, & Paschke, 2021 ). Hormes, Kearns, and Timko (2014) found that problematic social media users have a higher degree of emotion dysregulation (lack of awareness and non-acceptance).…”

ICD-11-Based Assessment of Social Media Use Disorder in Adolescents: Development and Validation of the Social Media Use Disorder Scale for Adolescents

“…The SMDS had been repeatedly applied to adolescent samples and showed adequate to good psychometric properties (8-10). Its parental version was validated in a representative sample of German adolescents and their parents to add external views and revealed good psychometric properties (44). In the sample of the current study both scales showed a good internal consistency (SMDS: Cronbach's α = 0.81; SMDS-P: Cronbach's α = 0.85).…”

“…To compare the results of the new scale with validated DSM-5 based scales, PSMU was assessed by the Social Media Disorder Scale in its self-(SMDS) (8) and parental-judgement version (SMDS-P) (44). The SMDS was developed based on the DSM-5 criteria for IGD and the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale (IGDS) (45).…”

Social Media Usage, Working Memory, and Depression: An Experimental Investigation among University Students

“…This could contribute to the negative impact of social media on cognitive performance in general or on working memory, specifically [ 26 ]. Furthermore, unhealthy (disordered or excessive) use of social media has been found to invariably influence psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety [ 27 ].…”