Computers in Human Behavior 48 (2015) 190198

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Computers in Human Behavior

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh

Construction of the Risk of Addiction to Social Networks Scale (Cr.A.R.S.)

Lindsey W. Vilca a,, Mara Vallejos b
a
b

Departamento de Psicologa, Universidad Peruana Unin, Carretera Central Km. 19, aa, Lima, Peru
Direccin General de Investigacin, Universidad Peruana Unin, Carretera Central Km. 19, aa, Lima, Peru

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Available online 14 February 2015
Keywords:
Technology addiction
Social networks addiction
Internet addiction
Psychometrics

a b s t r a c t
The purpose of this study is the construction and evaluation of the psychometric properties of an instrument that is capable of detecting the risk of addiction to social networks in adolescents between the ages
of 14 and 18. For this reason, a conceptual denition of the construct was performed on the rst stage of
the study and a preliminary instrument (59 items) was developed based on the literature on addiction to
new technologies. On the second stage, a pilot sample of 205 school students was considered. An
exploratory factor analysis was performed in order to make a rigorous analysis of the theoretical and
dimensional nature of the construct. On the third stage, the psychometric properties of the scale were
veried along with 453 high school students ranging from third to fth high school grades belonging
to 7 high schools in the city of Lima Metropolitana, where the conrmatory factor analysis showed that
the factor structure is good (RMSEA = .047, CFI = .91) and Cronbachs alpha coefcient were between .71
and .96 for both the dimensions and the global scale. The scale nally consisted of 43 items assessing 7
dimensions of addiction to social networks: loss of control, abstinence syndrome, decreased academic
performance, mood modication, dependency, loss of interest in other activities and conicts in the social
sphere. We conclude that the instrument gives evidence of good internal consistency and construct
validity.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
In recent years, the progressive impact of new technologies
have revolutionized how to handle, store and transmit information, which has brought about signicant changes in society, especially in the way we relate with others (Oliva et al., 2012). With
over 850 million users worldwide, social networks stand out
among these new communications technologies, with adolescents
being the heaviest users. In fact, 80% of users range between 12 and
30 years old, and this is an ever-growing trend (Morduchowicz,
Marcon, Sylvestre, & Ballestrini, 2010). Inappropriate and excessive
use of these technologies has generated concern due to the psychological impact on adolescents. Different studies suggest that
excessive use of social networks and the Internet are related to
propensity for depression, being less assertive, having low frustration tolerance, irritability, low self-esteem, impoverishment of
social relationships, decreased academic performance, verbal or
physical aggression, theft of money and runaways (Cheung &

Corresponding author. Tel.: +51 986357033, +51 01 6186300; fax: +51 01 6186
339.
E-mail addresses: lwquiro@gmail.com (L.W. Vilca), mariav@upeu.edu.pe
(M. Vallejos).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.01.049
0747-5632/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Wong, 2011; Cruzado, Matos, & Kendall, 2006; Herrera, Pacheco,

Palomar, & Zavala, 2010; Huang & Leung, 2009; Llamas, 2005).
In the case of adolescents, the greatest risk is the possibility of
generating an addictive behavior that leads not only to an excessive dedicationwhich can separate the adolescent from other
activities essential for their developmentbut also to a dependency and lack of control over their behavior (Oliva et al., 2012;
Park, Kim, & Cho, 2008). This can be partly because the psychological and developmental factors typical of the stage they are in can
make them more vulnerable to this type of addiction and the
development of identity and establishment of intimate relationships are two objectives that often put adolescents in a problematic and stressful situation. Kandell (1998) explains that unlike
real world relations, the ones held in the network provide a feature of anonymity and can be developed without the anxiety which
is typical of the face-to-face relationships. Furthermore, he says,
these network relations can give adolescents the opportunity to
move into a fantasy world and express themselves as they would
like to be and not as they really are. Similarly, Becoa (2006) mentions that the virtual world helps adolescents create a false identity, setting them apart from the real world (loss of personal
contact), or distorting it.
In addition, adolescents are still in the process of development
and consolidation of social skills; the more time they devote

L.W. Vilca, M. Vallejos / Computers in Human Behavior 48 (2015) 190198

themselves to the use of the Internet and social networks, the

greater the risk for not consolidating their communication skills
(e.g., their ability to understand, interpret and respond to social
stimuli) since this activity displaces the time they can spend with
their peers using direct communication (Davis, 2012; Dolev-Cohen
& Barak, 2013; Subrahmanyam & mahel, 2011; Valkenburg &
Peter, 2009, 2011).
Given this reality it is really important to have psychological
instruments to detect possible cases of addiction to social networks as early as possible. Thus, the rst questionnaires were oriented to assess Internet addiction, which were developed based on
the criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) for pathological gambling and substance dependency. Among the most important ones are the Internet
Addiction Test (IAT), which assesses the extent to which Internet
use affects the daily routine, social life, productivity, sleep, and
feelings (Young, 1998). There is also the Internet-Related Experiences Questionnaire (CERI Spanish acronym) which distinguishes
between intrapersonal and interpersonal conicts (Beranuy,
Chamarro, Graner, & Carbonell, 2009). Likewise, Huang, Wang,
Qian, Zhong, and Tao (2007) developed the Chinese Internet Addiction Inventory (CIAI), which assesses three dimensions of addiction: conicts, mood modication, and dependency. Regarding
social networks, Andreassen, Torsheim, Brunborg, and Pallesen
(2012) built the Addiction Scale to Facebook, which consists of
18 questions that assess six basic criteria: prominence, mood modication, tolerance, withdrawal, conict and relapse.
Although various instruments have been developed to assess
addiction to the Internetmost of them in Englishno instruments
have been found to specically assess the problem of addiction to
social networks although this problem is in a growing trend and
requires immediate preventive measures. In light of this, it is necessary to have reliable and valid instruments to assess the existence and/or the risk of this addiction. In this sense, the study
aims to construct and evaluate a scale to measure the risk of addiction to social networks in Peruvian adolescents.

1.1. Conceptualization of the addiction to social networks construct

The addiction to social networks construct is framed within
technological addictions, which are dened as non-chemical addictions that involve humanmachine interaction (Grifths, 1999). It
can also be dened as a specically psychological addiction (Jin,
Kim, & Hay, 2013). However, to this date, there is no consensus
among experts on the meaning of addiction to social networks or
a robust theoretical framework to explain the mechanisms by
which this addiction is given. On the other hand, there are many
similarities among authors when describing the characteristics of
addiction. For example, Alonzo-Fernandez (1996) points out that
to consider it an addiction these two factors must necessarily
occur: loss of control and dependency. Authors like Charlton and
Danforth (2007), Davis (2001), Suler (2004) and Wieland (2005)
also note that psychological dependency is one of the most important symptoms in the addiction to the Internet and its various services. Also, Echebura and Corral (2009) points out that addictive
behavior is not related to the frequency but to the dependency, loss
of control and serious interference caused on everyday life. As it
occurs with chemical addictions, people addicted to the use of a
certain behavior experience abstinence syndrome that is primarily
characterized by irritability, dysphoric mood and emotional distress (Echeburua, 2000). Moreover, Young (1999) notes that the
negative effects of addiction are noticeable in the family and academic eld. Additionally, Davis (2001) states that addiction
reduces the time spent on other activities such as eating, sleeping,
studying or chatting with other family members.

191

Finally, this construct is dened as the deterioration in the selfcontrol ability, directly related to the dependency generated, presenting abstinence syndrome when the person cannot access social
networks, consequently resulting in the decline of academic performance, loss of interest in other activities and conicts in the
social sphere. From this denition seven dimensions emerge constituting addiction to social networks:
Loss of control: This activity has to be performed more intensely
to obtain initial effects; in other words, there is a need to spend
more and more time connected to social networks in order to get
the same level of satisfaction, resulting in the inability or decreased
ability to control their use (Andreassen et al., 2012; Grifths, 2005).
Dependency: It is the need to perform the behavior and the
everyday life contingency for the addiction maintenance. In other
words, dependency occurs when the activity becomes the most
important thing in the life of a person, dominating its thoughts,
feelings and behaviors. In other words, the person evidences automatic behaviors, emotionally activated and with little cognitive
control over its decisions. The addicted person weighs the benets
of instant gratication, but it does not notice any negative longterm consequences (Alonzo-Fernndez, 1996; Echebura,
Labrador, & Becoa, 2009; Grifths, 2005).
Conicts in the social sphere: It is the increase in problems with
social relationships and the decrease in the time spent with family
and friends as more time is spent at the computer (Chou, 2001;
Chou, Condron, & Belland, 2005; Echeburua, 2000; Yang & Tung,
2007).
Decreased academic performance: It is the loss of interest in academic performance, which leads to a decreased academic performance and a deterioration of the relationship with teachers
(Choo et al., 2010; Turel, Serenko, & Bontis, 2011; Yang & Tung,
2007; Young, 2009).
Abstinence syndrome: It is the emotional state characterized by
irritability, dysphoric mood and emotional distress, in which a
number of negative psychological changes take place such as mood
swings, anxiety or impatience due to slow connections or for not
nding what they are looking for, as well as altered consciousness
state (attentional focus), irritability in case of interruption and
inability to exit the screen when it is not possible to access social
networks. The most common features are: intense impulse to perform the behavior, increasing stress until the behavior is carried
out, temporary disappearance of stress, gradual return of the
impulse with increasing force, which is associated with the presence of external or internal stimuli, and secondary conditioning
to these stimuli (Echeburua, 2000; Gil Roales-Nieto, 1996).
Mood modication: Emotional changes produced by the use of
social networks. Adolescents precisely use them as a way to forget
their problems or reduce their negative emotional states, such as
feelings of guilt, anxiety, helplessness or sadness. In other words,
a normal person can use new technologies for prot or pleasure
of the behavior itself; however, an addicted person uses it to seek
relief of distress and this relief becomes less intense and of shorter
duration (Echebura, Corral, & Amor, 2005; Grifths, 2005; Marks,
1990).
Loss of interest in other activities: There are drastic changes in
lifestyle in order to have more time to stay connected on social networks such as loss of interest in hobbies or other leisure activities.
Adolescents most often choose to be connected to the network
instead of spending more time with friends, which decreases sociability (Young, 1998a, 1998b).

2. Methodology
The application of the instrument was conducted in classrooms
where participants were performing their academic activities

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L.W. Vilca, M. Vallejos / Computers in Human Behavior 48 (2015) 190198

during school hours under the supervision of the authors. Anonymity and condentiality of results were ensured; doubts were
resolved about procedures and we insisted on the sincerity of the
answers to maximize the validity of the information obtained.
The average time of protocol compliance was 20 min. The construction of the scale consists of three stages: (1) conceptual denition of the construct and development of the items, (2)
development of the scale and (3) conrmation of psychometric
properties.

other activities, (6) dependency and (7) decreased academic performance; this is the result of the elimination of the three dimensions and two sub dimensions (addictive thinking and irrational
ideas). In addition, the developed instrument has Likert response
categories of ve-points ranging from never to always, and it evaluates how they feel, how they think, and what is their actual
behavior regarding the use of social networks. Based on this, the
adolescent level of risk is measured in case this addiction is
present.

2.1. Participants

2.2.2. Stage 2: Development of the scale

2.2.2.1. Review by expert panels. In order to ensure that the construct was properly reected in this instrument, both item content
and structure were submitted to a committee of experts. This committee consisted of seven judges, including a PhD student of Clinical Psychology, two masters degree holders in Psychology, three
psychologists with a major in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (one
of them is a specialist in children and adolescents), and a masters
degree holder in Methodology of Behavioral Science and Health. All
of these experts have renowned academic careers at a university,
graduate and research levels. The items of the scale were evaluated
based on four criteria: clarity, consistency, context, and construct
domain. For quantication, the Aikens V coefcient (Aiken, 1997)
was used. This coefcient can obtain values ranging from 0 to 1;
the closer to 1 the greater the items content validity (Peneld &
Giacobbi, 2004).

We considered two samples. In the pilot sample, 205 students

from three high schools in Lima-Peru (private and public schools)
participated, with a mean of 16 years of age (SD = 0.71). This sample was performed in order to build and debug the measuring
instrument developed. In the second sample, 453 students participated, 321 girls and 132 boys, from the third to fth grades of high
school from four schools in Lima-Peru, with a mean of 15.7 years of
age (SD = 0.96). Table 1 shows demographic data of both samples.
2.2. Procedure and data analysis
2.2.1. Stage 1: Conceptual denition of the construct and development
of items
It is essential to start with a complete and rigorous denition of
the construct to be measured in order to construct an instrument
with the necessary psychometric guarantees. It is based on a model
or theoretical reference that species the relationships between
the construct and its indicators (Furr & Bacharach, 2008; Muiz,
1998; Nunnally, Bernstein, & Velzquez, 1995). Therefore, the definition of the addiction to social networks and their dimensions
construct was based on the context of addiction to new technologies addressed by various researchers (Alonzo-Fernndez, 1996;
Andreassen et al., 2012; Charlton & Danforth, 2007; Choo et al.,
2010; Chou, 2001; Chou et al., 2005; Davis, 2001; Echeburua,
2000; Echebura & Corral, 2009; Echebura et al., 2005., 2009; Gil
Roales-Nieto, 1996; Grifths, 2005; Marks, 1990; Suler, 2004;
Turel et al., 2011; Wieland, 2005; Yang & Tung, 2007; Young, 2009).
Once this was nished, 59 items were elaborated which initially
assessed three dimensions: (1) affective, (2) behavioral and (3)
thinking, and their respective sub-dimensions. However, after a
theoretical analysis of the empirical data it was composed of seven
dimensions: (1) loss of control, (2) abstinence syndrome, (3) mood
modication, (4) conicts in the social sphere, (5) loss of interest in

Table 1
Sample characteristics.
Pilot sample

Big sample

n (%)

n (%)

Gender
Male
Female

100 (48.8)
105 (51.2)

132 (29.1)
321 (70.9)

Origin
LuriganchoChosica
Carapongo
Ate Vitarte
Santa Anita
La Molina
El Agustino

86 (42.0)
86 (42.0)
33 (16.1)

199 (43.9)
243 (53.6)
1 (0.2)
10 (2.2)

Age
14 years
15 years
16 years
17 years
18 years

2 (1.0)
34 (16.6)
121 (59.0)
43 (21.0)
5 (2.4)

52 (11.5)
115 (25.4)
206 (45.5)
65 (14.3)
15 (3.3)

old
old
old
old
old

2.2.2.2. Item selection. Several indicators were obtained for each of

the 59 items: (a) subdimension-item correlation greater than .5,
(b) alpha coefcient (as item is removed) equal or lower than the
coefcient of the subdimension, and (c) factor saturation in its
dimension above .30. These criteria have been adopted from psychometric research by Barraca, Yarto, and Olea (2000).
2.2.2.3. Reliability analysis. The reliability of the scale in the pilot
sample as well as in the large sample was evaluated by the internal
consistency method, for which Cronbachs alpha coefcient was
used. This coefcient expresses test reliability based on the number of items and proportion of total variance in the test due to
covariance between items. The more covariance between items,
the greater the test reliability (Barbero, 2010).
2.2.2.4. Exploratory factor analysis. To assess the construct validity
of the scale, an exploratory factor analysis was used to assess the
construct validity of the scale, by means of the principal component method with varimax rotation (Nunnally et al., 1995) and Kaiser normalization. Prior to this, the compliance with the criteria of
Bartletts sphericity test was veried as well as the KMO index
(KaiserMeyerOlkin). The exploratory factor analysis was performed with SPSS 22.0 for Windows.
2.2.3. Stage 3: Conrmation of psychometric properties
2.2.3.1. Conrmatory factor analysis. The estimation method used in
the conrmatory factor analysis was the maximum likelihood
(ML). Even though it allows multivariate normality, it is reasonably
robust to non-compliance (Curran, West, & Finch, 1996), and the
possible bias in the estimation would occur, in any case, leading
to a worse t than the real one (Toms & Oliver, 1998). In order
to assess the adequacy of such model, we used the following: the
chi-square reason (v2)/gl, where a score lower than 3 is indicative
of a good t (Marsh & Hau, 1996); the root mean square error of
approximation (RMSEA), where values lower than 0.05 indicate a
good t and values between .05 and .08 are considered acceptable
(Brown, 2006; Kline, 2005); in the case of comparative t index
(CFI), incremental t index (IFI) and TLI index, values higher than
.95 indicate a good t and those higher than .90 are considered

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L.W. Vilca, M. Vallejos / Computers in Human Behavior 48 (2015) 190198

an acceptable t (Marsh & Hau, 1996); and the Parsimonious norm

t index (PNFI) that corrects the effect of adjustment increase simply because of the release of model parameters. SPSS 22.0 and
AMOS 22.0 for Windows were used to analyze the data.
3. Results
3.1. Evidence of content validity
Before using the items, it is important to consider its theoretical
relevance for the construct components (Clark & Watson, 2002)
and that each component is represented by a sufcient number
of items. In this regard, the Aiken V validity coefcient for Cr.A.R.S.
content analysis is summarized in Table 2, where items show values higher than 0.80 (Escurra, 1988). It indicates that there is consensus on item inclusion since they are related to the construct,
use words common to our context, and evaluate the dimensions
and subdimensions, providing content validity for the instrument.

Table 3
Factor analysis of loss of control.
Items

Before
Factor I

p27
p14
p23
p20
p6
p43
p34
p59
p55
p19
p35
p37
% Total explained variance
KMO test
Barletts test

After
Factor II

.786
.240
.782
.106
.686
.263
.680
.216
.603
.299
.598
.494
.528
.488
.032
.816
.300
.727
.272
.601
.488
.537
.477
.535
55.64%
.904
v2 (66) = 1005.949
p < .001

Factor I
.772
.687
.701
.677
.658
.782
.719

.680
.586
.712
.703
48.97%
.903
v2(55) = 935.676
p < .001

Note: Factor loading < .10 in factor I and > .70 in factor II are in boldface.

3.2. Item analysis and selection

Several indicators were obtained for each of the 59 items: subdimension-item correlation, factor saturation, and alpha coefcient
of the subdimension with item removed. Only those items that
have simultaneously met the following requirements were
retained: (a) subdimension-item correlation higher than .5, (b)
alpha coefcient (with item removed) equal or lower than the
coefcient of the subdimension, and (c) factor saturation in its
dimension above .30. In this rst approach to exploratory factor
analysis for each dimension (third selection criterion), we used a
principal component method and varimax rotation method for
auto values higher than 1. Although most of the subdimensions
met this criterion individually from the rst subdimension (loss
of control), initially the analysis was conducted with all its 16
items, obtaining three factors accounted for 55.1% of the variance.
Therefore it was decided to remove items that did not meet the
rst two selection criteria (1, 5, 28, and 38), resulting in two factors
that explained 55.64% of the variance. After analyzing factor loadings in Table 3, we observe that compared to other items, item 59
is the only one with a very strong loading on the second factor and
extremely low on the rst one. Consequently, this item was
removed and another factor analysis was performed, where all
items have strong loadings on the same factor, as featured in the
second part of Table 3.
When analyzing the decreasing academic performance component, we obtained two clearly differentiated factors, where items
18, 29, 22 and 40 have a strong loading on factor I; items 50, 56
and 57 on factor II; and item 7 showed no greater factor loading
than .30 on any of the factors, thus it was decided to delete it.
When performing the factor analysis again, the second part of
Table 4 shows that items are still distributed in two factors. By
carefully analyzing the items from the theory and taking into
account the previous result, we decided to keep only items 18,
29, 22 and 40 for the decreasing academic achievement dimension;
while items 50, 57 and 56 become a new dimension called
Table 2
Instrument content analysis.

Table 4
Factor analysis of decreasing academic performance.
Items

Before
Factor I

p18
p29
p22
p40
p50
p57
p56
p07
% Total of explained variance
KMO test
Barletts test

After
Factor II

.798
.176
.789
.140
.788
.980
.768
.349
.127
.838
.112
.797
.264
.755
.270
.280
60.11%
.818
v2 (28) = 518.004
p < .001

Factor I

Factor II

.800
.172
.791
.136
.788
.920
.775
.352
.134
.839
.118
.796
.275
.764

67.10%
.813
v2(21) = 498.692
p < .001

Note: Factor loadings > .40 in their factors are in boldface.

dependency, which has theoretical support within the framework

of social networking addiction and addiction to new technologies.
Finally, we kept 51 items that simultaneously met the three aforementioned requirements.
3.3. Cr.A.R.S. initial reliability: Internal consistency
The overall reliability of the scale and its sub-dimensions was
assessed by calculating the index of internal consistency with
Cronbachs alpha coefcient. The overall internal consistency of
Cr.A.R.S. (51 items) in this sample is .96 which can be taken as a
high reliability indicator. It can also be observed that reliability
scores in most of the subdimensions are acceptable and above
.80, which is the minimum expected value when the test objective
is classication (Nunnally et al., 1995). However, this is not true for
subdimensions related to forms of emotional escape and addictive
thinking that do not have acceptable reliability (.695 and .637,
respectively).
3.4. Cr.A.R.S. construct validity: Exploratory factor analysis

Test

Aiken V

Correct application and structure

Order of questions established properly
The test does not include difcult questions to understand
The test does not include difcult words to understand
The Response options are relevant and properly graded
The Items correspond to the dimension to which they belong

1
1
1
.85
1
.85

In order to verify the construct validity of the Risk of Addiction

to Social Networks Scale and to be able to answer the question:
what does the test measure? (Cortada de Cohan, 1999), we think
it is necessary to test the theoretical and dimensional nature of
the construct using the exploratory factor analysis. Before carrying
out the analysis, the sampling adequacy (KMO) was veried,

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L.W. Vilca, M. Vallejos / Computers in Human Behavior 48 (2015) 190198

showing a high correlation between the data (.88), higher than .80
(Kaiser, 1970). In addition, data from the correlation matrix proved
the hypothesis that the correlation matrix is not an identity matrix
(p = .000), thus the exploratory factor analysis can be considered as
an appropriate technique.
An exploratory factor analysis was performed to items of each
of the components, using the principal component and varimax
rotation methods for nine xed factors. In the matrix of rotated
components, only items of these constructs loss of control,
decreased academic performance and dependency t their respective component, while the others were scattered, especially those
belonging to the subdimensions of irrational ideas and addictive
thinking. The latter one was then removed since its three items
show low reliability and factor loadings on different components.
We also decided to delete the component of irrational ideas along
with items 54 and 53. Items 12, 16 and 24 became part of the component mood modication (redenition of emotional escape),
because items are empirically related and there is theoretical support for them. Item 52 scores along with some items from the component of loss of interest in other activities. Even though this
construct is not clearly dened in this rst analysis, we decided
to keep it, since theoretically it will become part of this component.
Based on this rst nding, it was decided to remove the behavioral,
emotional and thought dimensions and all subdimensions became
dimensions (loss of control, abstinence syndrome, mood modication, conicts in the social sphere, loss of interest in other activities, dependency, and decreased academic performance).
After removing these items, a new exploratory factor analysis
was performed on seven xed factors where most of the items
show values in their corresponding component. This time each of
them was observed in a clearer way unlike the previous analysis.
Among items with values in a component that does not belong
to them, we decided to delete item 2 (mood modication), since
theoretically there is no relationship to the abstinence syndrome
dimension and its factor loading is the lowest in the factor where
it is found. Similarly it occurs with item 9 (loss of control) and
44 (conicts in the social sphere) that theoretically do not belong
to the components where they show a high factor loading; therefore, we decided to remove them.
A new exploratory factor analysis was performed after making
the corrections to the instrument, which shows that the extraction
of seven factors is explained by 59.9% of the total variance (see
Table 5).
In Table 6 shows the exploratory factor analysis with the corrections made to the instrument, where each item ts in a clearer
way in its factors. The loss of control component consists of almost
all items except for item 23. This item was kept because it has a
considerable factor loading on this component, despite showing
values in another factor. We also incorporated item 41 in light of
empirical data and theoretical analysis. The abstinence syndrome
component consists of most of its items, except for item 30 that
has a strong factor loading on another component. However we
decided to keep it, because its factor loading is signicant for the

Table 5
Variance explained.
Component

Proportion of variance explained

Cumulative proportion
of variance explained

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

38.00
5.28
4.05
3.65
3.43
2.87
2.64

38.00
43.29
47.34
50.99
54.42
57.28
59.93

Table 6
Rotated factor matrix for the 7 constructs.
Items

Dimension

LC

p14
p27
p41
p6
p34
p35
p43
p20
p23
p37

LC
LC
LC
LC
LC
LC
LC
LC
LC
LC

.693
.620
.577
.576
.574
.566
.534
.479
.448
.425

p58
p11
p33
p4
p8
p32
p30

AS
AS
AS
AS
AS
AS
AS

p18
p29
p22
p40

DAP
DAP
DAP
DAP

p12
p16
p13
p51
p24

MM
MM
MM
MM
MM

p57
p50
p56
p49
p19

D
D
D
D
D

p46
p45
p47
p52
p25
p26
p48

LIOA
LIOA
LIOA
LIOA
LIOA
LIOA
LIOA

p15
p31
p10
p55
p21

SCS
SCS
SCS
SCS
SCS

AS

DAP

MM

LIOA

SCS

.377
.397
.351
.349
.328
.431
.458

.377
.340
.316

.665
.659
.596
.595
.577
.442
.412

.341

.345

.333
.334
.402
.493
.723
.695
.651
.628
.663
.645
.643
.548
.545

.310

.319
.508

.349

.316

.350
.721
.707
.707
.647
.429

.325

.328
.346

.321
.419
.495

.418
.373
.316
.342

.323

.301
.360

.305

.393

.683
.616
.525
.483
.468
.451
.375

.389

.594
.550
.506
.452
.435

Note: LC = Loss of Control; AS = Abstinence Syndrome; DAP = Decrease of Academic

Performance; MM = Mood Modication; D = Dependency; LIOA = Loss of interest in
other activities; SCS = Conicts in the Social Sphere.

abstinence syndrome. Meanwhile, item 33 has a high factor loading on this component, despite belonging to another factor. Nonetheless, it was decided to incorporate this item after a theoretical
analysis. All items of the component decreased academic performance have a strong factor loading. The mood modication component consists of the majority of its items except for item 33
(incorporated to abstinence syndrome). In the dependency dimension, its items clearly show values in this factor. Items 19 and 49
have been added based on the theoretical and empirical support.
In the component related to loss of interest in other activities, only
items 25, 47 and 46 have scores in the same factor, while item 26
was kept thanks to its considerable factor loading in spite of its values in another factor. Based on a theoretical analysis to items and
an empirical support from data, it was decided to incorporate
items 45, 48 and 52 to this construct. Finally, remaining items of
the component conicts in the social sphere (10, 15 and 31)
showed values in its factor; other items have been removed or
have become part of other components. Items 21 and 55 have been
added to this construct because of the theoretical and empirical
support.

L.W. Vilca, M. Vallejos / Computers in Human Behavior 48 (2015) 190198

3.5. Reliability of the nal instrument

Table 7 shows a .96 overall internal consistency for Cr.A.R.S. (43
items) that can be considered as an indicator of high reliability.
Furthermore, we can observe that the reliability scores of all
dimensions are acceptable and the majority of them are above
.80, which is the minimum expected value when the objective of
the test is classication or diagnosis (Nunnally et al., 1995). It is
further appreciated that the dimensions of loss of control,
decreased academic performance and mood modication have
improved their Cronbachs alpha (.902, .857, .790, respectively)
relative to the initial reliability (.895, .826, .695, respectively).
3.6. Cr.A.R.S. construct validity: Conrmatory factor analysis
In the conrmatory factor analysis (see Fig. 1) all the improved
test items were considered and the 7 components were included as
latent variables. The obtained t indices were RMSEA = .047,
TLI = .90 and CFI = .91 indicating a good t of the data to the model.
Furthermore, the relationship v2/degrees of freedom has a value of
2.01 which is acceptable as it is below 3. It is noted that factor loadings of each latent variable with its corresponding variables
observed are high and signicant; therefore, the existence of convergent validity can be inferred.
3.7. Final Cr.A.R.S. instrument
Table 8 shows the structure of the nal scale (modied numbering), after being improved in the different versions through review
by expert panels, reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis
and conrmatory factor analysis.

4. Discusin
The aim of this study was the construction and validation of an
instrument capable of detecting the risk of addiction to social networks in adolescents. In this sense, this construct is dened as the
deterioration in the self-control ability related to dependency,
leading to abstinence syndrome when the adolescent cannot
access social networks, resulting in decreased academic performance, loss of interest in other activities and conicts in the social
sphere. Although this denition summarizes the opinions of different authors about this problem (Alonzo-Fernndez, 1996;
Andreassen et al., 2012; Charlton & Danforth, 2007; Davis, 2001;
Echeburua, 2000; Echebura & Corral, 2009; Echebura et al.,
2005; Echebura et al., 2009; Gil Roales-Nieto, 1996; Grifths,
2005; Marks, 1990; Suler, 2004; Wieland, 2005; Young, 1999,
2009), it is also the nal outcome of a theoretical analysis from
empirical research data because the denition of this construct
and its dimensions have undergone several changes during the
scale construction. Therefore, this research is the rst attempt to
address and measure this construct.

Table 7
Estimates of Cr.A.R.S. internal consistency.
Dimensions

No. of items

Alpha

Loss of control
Conicts in the social sphere
Decreased academic performance
Dependency
Abstinence syndrome
Mood modication
Loss of interest in other activities
Risk of addiction to social networks

10
5
4
5
7
5
7
43

.902
.718
.857
.715
.850
.790
.832
.960

195

In the technical requirements of validity and reliability were

evaluated in this research; and the results are directly related to
the characteristics of the test sample (AERA & NCME., 2014). As
Elosua (2003), we performed a set of studies to gather enough evidence that can provide scientic basis for the interpretation of
scores on a particular use of the instrument. Thus, the research is
composed of three stages: the rst one is the denition of the construct and the development of its items; the second one is a pilot
study of scale psychometric properties; and the third one is the
conrmatory study.
On the second stage the content validity study was performed
by an expert panel using the Aikens V coefcient (Aiken, 1997)
for its quantication. Reliability levels were also evaluated and
an exploratory factor analysis was conducted to assess the construct validity. In the analysis of content validity; item 6part of
the loss of control dimensionpresented serious observations in
context and congruence, which according to Oesterlind (1990), is
the main parameter and refers to the degree of consistency that
must exist between a particular item and the essential goals of
the test since this will utterly be a factor of reliability and validity.
Therefore, the item Do you have trouble controlling the urge to
acquire products and services offered on social networks? was
replaced by Do you look for excuses when people tell you that you
stay too long in social networks?
With the scale applied to the pilot sample, several psychometric
indicators for the items were obtained and we retained only those
items that have simultaneously met the following requirements:
Subdimension-item correlation greater than .5, alpha coefcient
(when the item is removed) equal to or lower than the coefcient
of the sub-dimension, and factor saturation in its dimension above
.30. These selection criteria have been adopted from the psychometric research by Barraca et al. (2000). Regarding the rst criterion, Mikulic (2003) mentions that it is usually used Pearsons
Product-Moment statistical tool. Nunnally et al. (1995) also note
that items with low or no signicant correlations (below .30) are
eliminated or revised, keeping only the less ambiguous and more
related to the construct. In this case, only moderate correlations
(r2 P .50) are taken into account, since the purpose of this test is
to detect and classify.
In this rst approach to exploratory factor analysis for each
dimension (third selection criterion), the principal component
and varimax rotation methods were used for eigenvalues above
1. Even though most of the seven dimensions met this criterion
individually, when analyzing the decreased academic performance
component, two distinct factors were obtained, where items 18,
29, 22 and 40 score high in factor I; items 50, 56 and 57 in factor
II; and item 7 do not have a factor load stronger than .30 on any
factor. By analyzing items of factor I, it was found that these items
evaluate this component in a clearer and more direct manner compared to items of factor II, and that although they are written in an
academic context, the underlying factor is not the component in
question. Instead, these items are strongly related to the writings
on technological addictions by Alonzo-Fernndez (1996) and
Echebura et al. (2009) and Grifths, 2005. These authors point
out that it is the need to inevitably adopt attitudes and the contingency of everyday life that sustain the habit. Taking into account
that the exploratory factor analysis does not prove theories but
rather suggests hypotheses for further contrast, we opted to recognize this factor as a new dimension, which we will call dependency. According to Charlton and Danforth (2007), Davis (2001),
Suler (2004) and Wieland (2005), this is one of the basic factors
that has to be present for addiction to exist. Finally, we kept 51
items that have simultaneously met the three requirements above.
The reliability of the Risk Scale related to the Addiction to Social
Networks was assessed by calculating the index of internal consistency using Cronbachs alpha coefcient. From the obtained

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L.W. Vilca, M. Vallejos / Computers in Human Behavior 48 (2015) 190198

Fig. 1. Cr.A.R.S. conrmatory factor analysis.

results, it is worth mentioning that the overall scale has a very

good reliability, since the index of internal consistency is high
(a = .965), given that it exceeds the cutoff point equal to .70 considered as an indicator of good reliability for psychological measurement instruments, as well as the critical value of .75, which is

generally accepted for instruments in the area of health sciences

(Streiner & Norman, 2008). In the same way, it is above .80 that
is the minimum expected value when the test objective is a classication (Nunnally et al., 1995). Although most of the sub-dimensions of the construct show adequate reliability, since they

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L.W. Vilca, M. Vallejos / Computers in Human Behavior 48 (2015) 190198

Table 8
Cr.A.R.S. nal structure.
Construct

Dimensions

Items

No. of items

Addiction to social networks

Loss of control
Abstinence syndrome
Decreased academic performance
Mood modication
Dependency
Loss of interest in other activities
Conicts in the social sphere

1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,

10
7
4
5
5
7
5

8, 15, 22, 29, 35, 38, 41, 42, 43

9, 16, 23, 30, 36, 39
10, 17, 24
11, 18, 25, 31
12, 19, 26, 32
13, 20, 27, 33, 37, 40
14, 21, 28, 34

Total number of items

exceed the above criteria, this does not happen with the dimension
related to forms of emotional escape (a = .695) and addictive thinking (a = .637). These values indicate that not all items of these two
dimensions are measuring the same thing, particularly addictive
thinking.
When exploratory factor analysis is performed with the principal component and varimax rotation methods for nine xed factors, only loss of control, decreased academic performance, and
dependency components are clearly formed by the majority of its
items. This situation does not happen with the other components.
A thorough analysis shows that the addictive thinking component
is not reected in the rotated component matrix since its three
items have factor loadings on different factors. Taking into account
that it has low reliability, it was decided to remove this component. Similar problems occur with the irrational ideas component,
so it was also removed. However, items 12, 16 and 24 remain since
they have a high factor loading on the component related to forms
of emotional escape, which after a new theoretical review was
renamed mood modication. This component refers to how the
addiction to social networks modies or improves the emotional
state of adolescents since it is used by them as a means of avoiding
problems or reducing negative emotional states (Andreassen et al.,
2012). This is because the person has an increasingly smaller
capacity to face negative emotions and daily frustrations, thus this
addictive behavior becomes the only way to face stress weakening
its coping strategies due to the lack of use (Echebura et al., 2005).
Moreover, item 52 is maintained and becomes part of the
dimension loss of interest in other activities as they have a logical
and empirical relationship; i.e., if the teenager believes that life
without social networks is boring or sad, logically most of their time
is going to be spent using them and, therefore, they will lose interest in other activities. This irrational thought is strongly related to
this component since distorted thoughts are sufcient proximate
causes for the event, intensication and maintenance of psychological dependency on new technologies (Davis, 2001). Then only
items 54 and 53 of irrational ideas are eliminated since they are
not theoretically related to the factors where they show values.
Based on this rst nding, the denition of addiction to social
networks is redened and the three dimensions (behavioral, emotional and thought) are removed, considered as a rst approach to
the construct. In addition, sub-dimensions become dimensions,
constituting seven dimensions (loss of control, abstinence syndrome, mood modication, conicts in the social sphere, loss of
interest in other activities, dependency, and decreased academic
performance). A new exploratory factor analysis with seven components show the scales factor structure more clearly, although
there are still items that score on a factor that theoretically does
not belong to them. Taking into account that item 2Do you use
social networks to forget about your problems?is an indicator that
does not measure abstinence syndrome but was built to evaluate
the construct related to forms of emotional escape (currently mood
modication), and that its factor loading is the lowest compared to
the items of the factor where it scores, we opted to eliminate this

43

item. The same occurs with items 9 and 44, which theoretically do
not belong to the factor where they show values; they were thus
removed.
When a new factor analysis with 43 nal scale items is performed, a rotated component matrix is obtained, where the seven
components are clearly formed by a vast majority of the items to
which they belong. Dependency construct items clearly score on
a single factor, in this same factor items 19 and 49 also have a high
loading factor (.429 and .647, respectively), understanding dependency as everyday life contingency to the maintenance of social
networks use in spite of the high costs involved. We opt to incorporate both items to this construct. Regarding the construct related
to loss of interest in other activities, it can be observed that only
items 25, 47 and 46 score in the same factor. We decide to keep
item 26 as it has a considerable factor loading (.451) despite scoring in another factor. Even though items 45 and 48 were made
with the aim of evaluating conict in the social sphere, empirical
data and a new theoretical review of the items show that they
are much more related to the component loss of interest in other
activities.
On the second stage with data collected from the large sample,
the Cronbachs alpha reliability coefcient of .96 is obtained, from
which it is deduced that the instrument has a high internal consistency. It occurs similarly with the seven dimensions (values ranging from .71 to .90). In the conrmatory factor analysis, once the
model has been estimated, it is necessary to evaluate its quality
for which goodness-of-t statistical tools are used: absolute t
(measured residues), relative t (compare the t to another model
of worse t), and parsimonious t (measures t in relation to the
number of parameters used). However, Schreider, Stage, King,
Nora, and Barlow (2006) mention that none of them provide all
the information necessary to assess the model and a set of them
is usually used, reporting them simultaneously. Following this line
of thought and comparing the t indices obtained to the absolute
t, the relationship v2/degrees of freedom has a value of 2.01
which is acceptable as it is below 3 (Marsh & Hau, 1996). As indicators of relative t we obtained: TLI = .91 and CFI = .92, while the
indicator of parsimonious t was PNFI = .77. These values show a
good t of the data to the model. Another important indicator to
evaluate the t of the model is RMSEA that takes 0.047, which is
below 0.05, as indication of a good t to the data (Brown, 2006;
Kline, 2005). Therefore, we conclude that the Cr.A.R.S. scale is a reliable and valid instrument.
5. Conclusions
This study contributes to the understanding of the theoretical
and dimensional constitution of the social networks addiction construct, since its denition and components are the nal result of
the theoretical analysis of empirical research data. In this sense,
following the perspective of several authors, the study proposes
the existence of seven dimensions, which is corroborated
empirically.

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L.W. Vilca, M. Vallejos / Computers in Human Behavior 48 (2015) 190198

In the same way, we come to the conclusion that there is construct validity since the model proposed in the conrmatory factor
analysis showed good t indices. There is also a high reliability
reecting internal consistency of the scale, both globally and in
the dimensions of the instrument.
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