Assessing Risk for Smartphone Addiction: Validation of an Arabic Version of the Smartphone Application-Based Addiction Scale

The Smartphone Application-Based Addiction Scale (SABAS) is a brief measure that can be used to screen for risk associated with smartphone addiction. While it has been validated in a number of languages, an Arabic version is yet to be tested. This study aimed to test the construct validity an Arabic language version of the SABAS using a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and maximum likelihood estimation. A sample of 453 Emirati (citizens of the United Arab Emirates) young adults (Mage = 20.32, SD = 1.53; 117 males [25.8%]) completed the SABAS measure, which was translated using recommended back-translation procedures, measures of depression, anxiety, and stress, and self-reported their daily duration of smartphone use, as well as demographic information. CFA results supported the unidimensional structure of the Arabic SABAS and the data met a number of indices indicative of acceptable model fit (λ range 0.45 to 0.66). The measure displayed satisfactory internal consistency (α = 0.71) and convergent validity. Correlations between the SABAS and depression, anxiety, stress, and smartphone use were statistically significant, but small in magnitude (r ranged 0.11 to 0.25). The availability of a validated Arabic version of the SABAS will facilitate the conduct of smartphone addiction research in the Arabic-speaking world. However, the present study’s results should be viewed as preliminary evidence of its psychometric properties. Further investigation with larger and more diverse samples of Arabic-speaking participants is required.