Personality and Individual Differences 134 (2018) 55–59

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Personality and Individual Differences

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Development and validation of the Chinese social media addiction scale T

a b,⁎
Chang Liu , Jianling Ma
a
Yangtze Normal University, Fu'ling District, Chongqing 408100, China
b
Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chongwen Road, Nan'an District, Chongqing 400065, China

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Accumulating evidence has shown that social media addiction is a growing problem in China, especially among
Social media emerging adults. Nonetheless, the absence of a psychometrically sound measuring tool obstructs further progress
Addiction in this field. Therefore, we examined the properties of a newly developed social media addiction scale among a
Problematic use sample of 619 college students. An exploratory factor analysis revealed that the scale had six factors: preference
Internet addiction
for online social interaction, mood alteration, negative consequence and continued use, compulsive use and
withdrawal, salience, and relapse, which explained 63.83% of the total variance. Cronbach's alpha and half-split
coefficient of the whole scale were 0.937 and 0.879, respectively. A confirmatory factor analysis indicated that
the six-factor model was a good fit to the data. Moreover, the social media addiction scores were positively
correlated with smartphone addiction, pathological Internet use, and narcissism, but negatively associated with
self-esteem. Our study suggests that the newly developed social media addiction scale could be used as an
effective tool to assess social media addiction among emerging adults in China.

1. Introduction
In the past decade, we have witnessed the emergence and explosion
of social media, which allows for instant communication, the ability to
maintain friendships and interact with friends in real-time, and seeking
new acquaintances based on common interests (Ellison, 2007). The use
of social media in China is so ubiquitous and popular that people can
access it whenever they want. However, such seemingly incessant
connection could be problematic due to empirical findings that ex-
cessive use could lead to envy, depression, and anxiety (Kross et al.,
2013; Marino, Gini, Vieno, & Spada, 2018). Consequently, pathological
social media use or addiction to it is a public health concern.
Several screening tools have been explored to assess this evolving
issue. Some instruments cater to specific social media platforms, such as
the wide spread use of the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale
(Andreassen, Torsheim, Brunborg, & Pallesen, 2012), which has already
been extensively adapted to diverse culture backgrounds (Phanasathit,
Manwong, Hanprathet, Khumsri, & Yingyeun, 2015; Pontes,
Andreassen, & Griffiths, 2016; Salem, Almenaye, & Andreassen, 2016).
Others have been constructed based on the Internet gaming disorder
criterion, such as the social media disorder scale (van den Eijnden,
Lemmens, & Valkenburg, 2016). Moreover, some have been developed
by adapting existing Internet addiction scales to social media domains
(Assunção & Matos, 2017; Caci, Cardaci, Scrima, & Tabacchi, 2017;
Marino, Vieno, Altoè, & Spada, 2016). However, Facebook addiction is
not synonymous with social media addiction (Griffiths, 2012, 2013;
Kuss & Griffiths, 2011); therefore, a broader platform and psychome-
trically sound scale is needed to assess this growing problem (Kuss &
Griffiths, 2017). Moreover, the dimensions of existing tools vary con-
siderably because these measurements were based on diverse theore-
tical backgrounds. In addition, the abovementioned tools were typically
developed in Western culture, and cross-culture validation of the ex-
isting scales is still necessary.
According to the latest released official report from the China
Internet Network Information Center (CINIC), there are almost 0.751
billion netizens in China, accounting for 1/5 of the netizens globally
(CNNIC, 2017). Of these, 30.3% are aged 20–29 years. The top three
most popular used social media cites were Wechat (utilization ratio:
85.5%), QQ (utilization ratio: 67.8%), and Sina Weibo (utilization ratio:
37.1%) (CNNIC, 2017). Wechat is a Chinese multi-purpose messaging,
social media, and mobile payment app. It was first released in 2011; by
2018, it was one of the world's largest standalone mobile apps by
monthly active users (over 1 billion). Like Wechat, QQ is another well-
known social media platform consisting of online social games, music,
shopping, micro-blogging, movies, and group and voice chat software,
which has a longer history than Wechat. Sina Weibo implements many
features from Twitter (i.e., people follow celebrities). Despite the ex-
tensive reports of the negative effects of social media use by the media,
insufficient research has been conducted in China owing to the lack of
reliable tools to gauge this issue. Consequently, we developed and

⁎
Corresponding author at: Education Development Department, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chongwen Road, Nan'an District, Chongqing 400065, China.
E-mail address: jianling_ma@163.com (J. Ma).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.05.046
Received 20 November 2017; Received in revised form 24 May 2018; Accepted 30 May 2018
Available online 05 June 2018
0191-8869/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
C. Liu, J. Ma
validated a scale to measure social media addiction among Chinese
college students to bridge this gap.
After an extensive review of extant measurement tools addressing
behavior, the Internet, and social media addiction (Griffiths, 2000;
Hormes, Kearns, & Timko, 2014; Weinstein & Lejoyeux, 2010; Young,
1998), seven classic dimensions of behavioral addiction were included:
compulsive use, withdrawal, negative consequence, mood alteration,
salience, tolerance, and relapse. Moreover, another two dimensions
were considered. First, recent findings support that “preference for
online social interaction” (Caplan, 2003; Casale, Tella, & Fioravanti,
2013; Chung, 2013; Fioravanti, Dèttore, & Casale, 2012; Yu et al.,
2017) could also contribute to Internet addiction tendencies (e.g.,
“online social interactions are more comfortable than face-to-face in-
teractions”). Moreover, a recent study also provided initial evidence
that preference for online interactions was positively associated with
excessive social media use (Assunção & Matos, 2017; Chittaro &
Vianello, 2013). Therefore, we added this dimension to our scale.
Second, we included “continued use.” It is noteworthy that many
individuals continue to use social media even though they are aware of
its negative consequences, which are more likely to be psychosocial
than physical in nature. This construct has been incorporated in many
Internet addiction surveys. Considering recent evidence that social
media addiction shares some similarities with Internet addiction and
Internet gaming disorder (Przepiorka & Blachnio, 2016; Sigerson, Li,
Cheung, & Cheng, 2017), this dimension was included in this study. The
continued use dimension differs from both compulsive use and relapse.
Continued use specifically refers to a situation in which an individual is
aware of the negative outcome of excessive social media use, but still
cannot stop using it. Compulsive use is a subjective feeling that one is
eager to use social media without awareness of the negative outcomes.
Relapse relates to a situation in which one aims to reduce social media
use; however, they are not successful.
In sum, we developed and validated a Chines social media addiction
scale to inspire innovative research in this area in China. We expected
that the developed scale would have good reliability and validity.
2. Method
2.1. Participants
A convenience sample of 318 (sample 1, men = 59, women = 259,
aged 18–25 years, Mage = 20.43, SD = 1.538 years) and 301 (sample 2,
boys/men = 219, girls/women = 82, aged 16–28 years, Mage = 26.92,
SD = 1.334 years) was employed. Chinese college students participated
in exchange for course credit. Since the sex distribution was unequal,
independent t-tests were performed to examine possible sex differences:
in sample 1, Mmale = 80.98, SD = 19.92; Mfemale = 77.97, SD = 18.35;
t(316) = 1.19, p = .264; and, in sample 2, Mmale = 78.26, SD = 18.30;
Mfemale = 82.08, SD = 14.34; t(299) = 1.71, p = .09. Therefore, there
were no sex differences. Everyone had at least half a year of social
media use experience. In this study, “social media” specifically refers to
these three popular platforms in China. This study was approved by a
school research committee. Prior to data collection, formal consent was
collected from participants, and a notice explicating the study aims and
the assurance that personal data would remain confidential and anon-
ymous was sent to participants.
2.2. Measures
Students in sample 1 completed a paper-and-pencil version of the
58-item draft of the scale, which comprised the 8 dimensions men-
tioned above. Items per each dimension varied from 5 to 8. Items were
borrowed from the Internet Addiction Test, the Facebook Addiction
Scale, and the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale (continued use dimen-
sion); however, the terms “Internet,” “Facebook,” and “Internet
gaming” were replaced with “social media.” Two bilingual experts
56
Personality and Individual Differences 134 (2018) 55–59
examined the translation of the items when it was not written in
Chinese. All tests were written and administered in Chinese. Another
expert was responsible for translating final social media scale items into
English for publication purpose. The wording and arrangement of the
items was checked prior to administration to avoid any grammar am-
biguity, errors, repetition, etc. Items were evaluated on a 5-point Likert
scale ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree. The draft
scale could be finished in approximately 20 min. Sample 2 also com-
pleted a paper version of the scale. In addition, other measures were
included: the Smartphone Addiction Scale, the Adolescent Pathological
Internet Use Scale (APIU), a Self-esteem Scale, and a Narcissistic
Personality Questionnaire for convergent and criterion-related validity
analyses.
Average daily social network use time was collected since this is a
valid index of social media addiction (Huang, 2017). Respondents were
asked to indicate how much total time they used social media daily: (1)
< 15 min, (2) 15–30 min, (3) 30 min–1 h, (4) 1–2 h, (5) 2–3 h, or (6)
> 3 h.
The Smartphone Addiction Scale was used to measure cellphone
addiction (Kwon et al., 2013). Items were evaluated on a 6-point Likert
Scale, ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (6) strongly agree. Cronbach's
alpha was 0.93 in this study.
The APIU was used to assess excessive Internet use (Lei & Yang,
2007). Items were evaluated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from (1)
strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree. Cronbach's alpha was 0.95 in this
study.
Self-esteem was measured using a Chinese adaption of
Rosenberger's Self-esteem Scale (Wu, 2008), which comprised ten
items. Responses ranged from 1 (totally disagree) to 4 (totally agree).
Items are added to obtain a total score. Cronbach's alpha was 0.78 in
this study.
The Narcissistic Personality Questionnaire consisting of 28 items
including overt and covert narcissism subscales (20 and 15 items, re-
spectively; 7 shared items) was used to measure narcissism (Zheng & Li,
2005). Items were evaluated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from (1)
strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree. The wide use of this questionnaire
in China and its reliability and validity have been demonstrated (Wang,
Jackson, Zhang, & Su, 2012; You, Leung, Lai, & Fu, 2013). Cronbach's
alphas for the whole scale and the overt and covert subscales sub-
scale = 0.88, 0.87, and 0.81, respectively.
2.3. Data analyses
Data analyses were performed in two steps. First, an exploratory
factor analysis (EFA) was performed with sample 1 data to determine
the factor structure of the scale using SPSS 20.0. Then, the structure of
the scale was validated with a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using
AMOS 20.0 software in sample 2.
3. Results
3.1. Scale structure
All items were significantly correlated with total score and retained
after the item-total correlation analysis. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin mea-
sure (0.933) of sample adequacy and Bartlett's Test of Sphericity
(χ2 = 478.16, df = 378, p < .001) indicated that the sample was sui-
table for an EFA. Given that factors were correlated, the principal axis
factoring method was used to extract factors. A direct oblimin rotation
was adopted. Retention of the factors was based on following criterion:
eigenvalues > 1, a visual inspection of the scree plot, explaining at
least 3% variance before rotation, factor loading value > 0.5, and in-
cluding at least 3 items. Items with factor loadings < 0.5 and > 0.4 on
two or more factors were deleted. Cronbach's alpha was calculated to
estimate internal consistency.
The extracted six factors were clear, identifiable, and easy-to-name.
C. Liu, J. Ma Personality and Individual Differences 134 (2018) 55–59

Table 1
Exploratory factor analysis of the social media addiction scale.
Items Factor

1 2 3 4 5 6

42. I get more respect through social media. 0.681

50. Friends on social media sites are friendlier to me. 0.675
36 I feel more confident through social media communication. 0.632
37. I feel more comfortable through social media communication. 0.632
45. I feel safer through social media communication. 0.620
8. Friends on social media sites give me more support. 0.596
33. When I am not happy, the use of social media can make me happy. 0.849
28. When I am in a bad mood, using social media can make me feel better. 0.839
4. When I get bored, using social media can make me feel better. 0.613
58. Social media can keep me from unpleasant emotions. 0.567
15. When I feel lonely, using social media can ease my sense of loneliness. 0.500
46. Although social media has had some negative impact on me, I will continue to use it. 0.825
54. Although social media has a negative impact on me, I still check/send posts, reply to others, etc. 0.795
52 Although social media has a negative impact on me, I continue browsing, commenting, etc. 0.781
44. I have been distracted due to the use of social media. 0.455
47. I have reduced sleep time more than once due to the use of social media. 0.455
39. If there is no time to use social media, I feel like I missed something. 0.758
43. If I cannot use social media, I feel anxious. 0.752
35. If I cannot use social media, I will feel lost. 0.685
48. If there is a period I am without social media, I want to know what is happening on it. 0.669
22. If I cannot use social media, I would miss it. 0.548
14. When I am not allowed to use social media, I feel a little irritable. 0.511
32. I almost forget all the other things when using social media. 0.914
38. I will not think about anything else when using social media. 0.639
56. When using social media, I am almost entirely devoted to it. 0.455
20. I have tried to reduce the use of social media, but not successfully. 0.860
26. I endeavored to control the time I use social media; however, I failed. 0.725
17. I attempted to reduce the times I logged on to social media; however, I failed. 0.662
Eigenvalues 10.58 2.02 1.66 1.35 1.17 1.1
Explained variance (%) 37.79 7.22 5.92 4.82 4.17 3.91
Cronbach's alpha 0.83 0.84 0.83 0.86 0.79 0.82

Note: Factor extraction method: principal axis factoring; rotation method: direct oblimin.

Table 2 reactions when not using social media. Salience (Factor 5, 3 items)
Correlations among social media addiction scale dimensions and total score. constituted items that described the fascination with using social media.
1 2 3 4 5 6
Lastly, relapse (Factor 6, 3 items) entailed items characterizing the
repeated occurrence of social media use. Cronbach's alpha and half-split
1. Preference for online 1 coefficient of the whole scale were 0.937 and 0.879, respectively. In
social interactions addition, the correlations between each dimension and the total score
2. Mood alteration 0.546⁎⁎ 1
3. Negative outcomes 0.404⁎⁎ 0.447⁎⁎ 1
are listed in Table 2.
and continued use
⁎⁎ ⁎⁎
4. Compulsive use/ 0.560 0.555 0.547⁎⁎ 1
withdrawal 3.2. Scale validation
5. Salience 0.539⁎⁎ 0.368⁎⁎ 0.433⁎⁎ 0.619⁎⁎ 1
6. Relapse 0.451⁎⁎ 0.387⁎⁎ 0.416⁎⁎ 0.570⁎⁎ 0.437⁎⁎ 1
7. Total score 0.787⁎⁎ 0.751⁎⁎ 0.726⁎⁎ 0.857⁎⁎ 0.714⁎⁎ 0.685⁎⁎ To validate the scale structure, the following indices were calculated
for the six-factor model: χ2, comparative fit index (CFI), adjusted
⁎⁎
p < .01. N = 301. goodness of fit index (AGFI), and root of means square error of ap-
proximation (RMSEA). Our analysis revealed the following results:
Table 1 shows the six-factor model with an explained total variance to χ2 = 676.979, df = 335, χ2/df = 2.02 < 3, p < .001, CFI = 0.929,
63.83%. Preference for online social interaction (Factor 1, 6 items) AGFI = 0.935, and RMSEA = 0.042, thus satisfying the model's fit-to-
referred to preferring social media communication over face-to-face data.
interactions. Mood alteration (Factor 2,5 items) denoted that social The correlational analysis showed that total scores were significant
media could be used for emotion modification. The negative con- negatively related to self-esteem (r = −0.161, p < .01), and positively
sequence and continued use (Factor 3, 5 items) factor described the associated with narcissism, smartphone addiction (r = 0.486, p < .01)
detrimental effect of social media on daily functioning and consecutive and adolescents' pathological Internet use (r = 0.176, p < .01)
using despite adverse outcomes. The compulsive and withdrawal factor (Table 3).
indicated preoccupation (Factor 4, 6 items) with using and emotional

Table 3
The association between total score and daily use time, self-esteem, narcissism, APIU, and smartphone addiction.
Daily use time Self-esteem Overt narcissism Covert narcissism Narcissism APIU Smartphone addiction

Total score 0.275⁎⁎ −0.161⁎⁎ 0.380⁎⁎ 0.480⁎⁎ 0.441⁎⁎ 0.176⁎⁎ 0.486⁎⁎

⁎⁎
p < .01, N = 301.

57
C. Liu, J. Ma
Table 4
The results of the multiple regression analysis related to social media addiction.
Model Predictive variable B Standard error B
1 Constant 40.680 4.198
Smartphone addiction 0.352 0.037
2 Constant 14.472 5.071
Smartphone addiction 0.284 0.035
Covert narcissism 0.788 0.101
3 Constant 8.232 5.279
Smartphone addiction 0.263 0.035
Covert narcissism 0.767 0.099
Daily use time 2.156 0.613
⁎⁎
p < .01, N = 301. Dependent variable: social media addiction.
3.3. Self-esteem, narcissism, smartphone addiction, and social media
addiction
To investigate the contribution of self-esteem, covert and overt
narcissism, daily time use, Internet addiction, and smartphone addic-
tion on social media addiction, these six variables were used as pre-
dictors. A multiple stepwise linear regression analysis was conducted
after the appropriateness of the data was examined.
Then, the data were analyzed through a multiple regression ana-
lysis. As can be seen in Table 4, smartphone addiction, covert narcis-
sism, and daily use time were all key predictors of social media ad-
diction—explaining 40% of the total variance related to social media
addiction. Smartphone addiction explained 23.7% of the total variance
and appeared to be the most important predictor. Covert narcissism, the
second important variable that predicted addiction behavior, explained
13.6% of the total variance. The third variable, daily use time, ex-
plained only 2.6% of the total variance.
4. Discussion
The present scale included six core dimensions: preference for on-
line social interaction, mood alteration, negative consequence and
continued use, compulsive use and withdrawal, salience, and relapse,
which were successfully confirmed by a CFA.
Although some criteria were identical to previously tools, continued
use and preference for online social interaction are two dimensions that
are not part of the Facebook Addiction Scale. Consistent with past re-
search that found that users' preference for online social interaction
accounted for Internet and social media addiction (Caplan, 2003;
Casale, Tella, & Fioravanti, 2013; Chung, 2013; Fioravanti, Dèttore, &
Casale, 2012; Yu et al., 2017), we found that fascination with online
communication partially accounted for social media addiction. Sur-
prisingly, the tolerance dimension disappeared in the final scale. One
possible explanation is that, contrary to the Facebook addiction scale
and social media disorder scale, which are intended for one platform,
we examined participants' general addiction tendencies for several
popular platforms. These platforms vary with features and functions;
therefore, tolerance could exhibit on one platform while fade on an-
other. However, such tentative assumptions should be tested in future
studies.
Regarding reliability and validity, all the related-indices were sa-
tisfactory. Self-esteem and narcissism were correlated with social media
addiction. The negative association between self-esteem and social
media addiction was in line with previous studies (Andreassen,
Pallesen, & Griffiths, 2017; Eşkisu, Hoşoğlu, & Rasmussen, 2017;
Fioravanti, Dèttore, & Casale, 2012; Valkenburg, Peter, & Schouten,
2006). Self-esteem, the core evaluation of individuals' own worth, has
long been regarded as a predictor of Internet use. It is plausible that
people with low self-esteem think of social media sites as safer places to
express themselves than do people with high self-esteem; therefore,
they devote more time to using such media. Previous studies found that
Personality and Individual Differences 134 (2018) 55–59
β t Sig. t R R square R square change F
9.691 < 0.001 0.487 0.237 0.237 88.39⁎⁎
0.487 9.402 < 0.001
2.854 0.005 0.611 0.373 0.136 84.31⁎⁎
0.394 8.107 < 0.001
0.381 7.838 < 0.001
1.559 0.120 0.632 0.400 0.026 62.59⁎⁎
0.364 7.533 < 0.001
0.370 7.767 < 0.001
0.166 3.516 < 0.001
higher narcissism (as opposed to lower) was correlated with extensive
use of online communities and presenting more self-promoting content
(Carpenter, 2012; Ong et al., 2011). Recently, the relationship between
narcissism and excessive use of social media sites was supported
through several empirical studies (Andreassen, Pallesen, & Griffiths,
2017). Although several studies have already explored the relationship
between self-esteem, narcissism, and addictive use of social media
(Andreassen, Pallesen, & Griffiths, 2017; Eşkisu, Hoşoğlu, & Rasmussen,
2017), we elucidated how self-esteem and specific types of narcissism
(i.e., covert and overt) contribute to general social media addiction in
China. Interestingly, covert rather than overt narcissism contributed
more to social media addiction. Covert narcissism, or vulnerable nar-
cissism, is characterized by a defensive and insecure sense of grandi-
osity that is associated with low self-esteem, shame proneness, shyness,
and hypersensitivity to the evaluation of others. Our results were con-
sistent with a recent study (Casale, Fioravanti, & Rugai, 2016) that
found that vulnerable narcissism may contribute more to problematic
use of social media than grandiose narcissism. However, the mechanism
underlying the relationship between narcissism that social media ad-
diction is still unclear and requires further investigation.
Further, the relationship between social media addiction, smart-
phone addiction, and Internet addiction is consisted with recent study
findings (Sigerson, Li, Cheung, & Cheng, 2017), suggesting the inter-
connections among social media addiction, smartphone addiction, In-
ternet gaming disorder, and Internet addiction, which may comprise a
global construct: information technology addiction. Although all four
kinds of behavioral addiction share similar qualities, each has unique
dimensions. Therefore, it is necessary to address each of them in-
dividually with sound measures. Moreover, to clarify the contributors
to social media addiction, a regression analysis was performed, which
provided evidence that smartphone addiction, covert narcissism, and
daily use time were key predictors of social media addiction. This
finding is plausible because ubiquitous mobile smartphone use provides
access to social media anytime and anywhere (Salehan & Negahban,
2013; Wu, Cheung, Ku, & Hung, 2013) without physical constraint.
4.1. Limitations and recommendations
This study had some limitations. The cross-sectional, self-report
design limits the ability to infer causality between variables. Moreover,
the scale does not provide cut-off points to distinguish addictive from
non-addictive, and only the structure, internal consistency, and validity
of the scale were examined. Consequently, further studies are needed to
report its test-retest reliability. Moreover, participants were college
students. Further studies should examine whether the scale is applic-
able for use with young adolescents. The scale could also be used to
assess behavioral addiction of other social media platform such as
Facebook, Twitter, and others.
58
C. Liu, J. Ma
5. Conclusions
This study contributes to the literature by providing a scale that
measures broad social media addiction in China and has good psy-
chometric properties. The Chinese social media addiction scale could be
used to assess social media addiction in both clinical and nonclinical
settings since it addresses variables not tacked in the well-known
Facebook Addiction Scale.
Acknowledgement
The present study were supported by the humanities and social
science research project of the Chongqing Education Committee
(17SKG192, 16SKGH054) and the key social science program of
Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications (2017KZD08).
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