The document describes the development and validation of the Brief Adolescent Smartphone Scale (BASS), a 6-item scale to screen for problematic smartphone use among schoolchildren. The BASS was administered to 441 Hungarian schoolchildren and showed good internal reliability and validity when compared to an established smartphone addiction scale. Younger children aged 9-13 scored higher on the BASS than older children aged 14-18, indicating a need for early attention to children's smartphone habits. Secondary school girls reported spending nearly twice as much daily time on their smartphones as boys.

1. Development and Preliminary Validation of a
Brief Smartphone Addiction Inventory for the
Screening of Schoolchildren
Sándor Csibi 1, Zsolt Demetrovics 2, & Attila Szabo 2
1 Department of Ethics and Social Sciences, Faculty of Medicine,
University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Târgu Mureș, Romania
2 Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Education & Psychology,
Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary

2. Smartphones
How many Smartphones are in the world?
Billion

3. 37 percent of teenagers, ages 13 to 17 have or have access to a
smartphone, 91 percent of teenagers, ages 13 to 17, access the
internet on cell phones, tablets and other mobile.
Pew Research Center, Internet, Science & Tech, 2015

4. Problematic Smartphone Use Among Children
Source: Mascheroni, G., Ólafsson, K., Cuman, A., Dinh, T., Haddon, L., Jørgensen, H., ... & Velicu, A. (2013).
Mobile internet access and use among European children: initial findings of the Net Children Go Mobile project.

5. Smartphone addiction is a growing problem among European
children, with about 50% of them reporting experiences linked
to dependence.
Below is the percentage of children who experienced at least two
forms of excessive smartphone use ‘fairly or very often’, by country:
Belgium 34%
Denmark 43%
Ireland 41%
Italy 50%
Portugal 57%
Romania 38%
UK: 65%
Average all countries: 48%
Source:
Mascheroni, G., Ólafsson, K., Cuman, A., Dinh, T., Haddon, L., Jørgensen, H., ... & Velicu, A. (2013).
Mobile internet access and use among European children: initial findings of the Net Children Go Mobile
project.

6. Mai mult de jumătate dintre adolescenții din România dețin un
smartphone; 86% interacționează prin Facebook.
luni, 30 Nov 2015, 10:49 • Sci&Tech
More than half of adolescents in Romania have a smartphone;
86% of them interact through Facebook.
Monday, 30 Nov 2015, 10:49 • Sci&Tech

7. The aim of the current work was to develop a
brief, easy-to-use and score tool for screening
children at risk for smartphone addiction.
We developed a brief 6-item scale on the basis
of the Components Model of Addiction1
Salience Tolerance
Conflict Withdrawal symptoms
Mood modification Relapse
1 Griffiths, M. (2005). A ‘components’ model of addiction within a biopsychosocial framework. Journal
of Substance Use, 10(4), 191-197.

8. Nowadays, my smartphone is the most
important thing in my life.
Mostanában, az okostelefonom a legkedvencebb
játékom vagy szórakozásom, és fontosabb
minden másnál
Conflicts have arisen between me and my
family (or friends) because of my smartphone
use.
Szüleim vagy tanáraim naponta többször rám
szólnak, hogy ne játsszak az okostelefonnal, ezért
már inkább olyankor játszom vele amikor nem
látják, vagy gyorsan eldugom amikor kell.
Preoccupying myself with my smartphone is a
way of changing my mood (I get a buzz, or I
can escape or get away, if I need to).
Az okostelefon izgalmas, jól érzem magam ha
játszom vele, sőt amikor szomorú vagyok, azzal
terelem el a figyelmemet.
Over time, I fiddle around more and more with
my smartphone.
Ahogy telik az idő, mind több és több dolgot
tudok csinálni az okostelefonnal, ezért egyre
többet játszom vele.
If I cannot use or access my smartphone when
I feel like, I feel sad, moody, or irritable.
Ha nem játszhatok az okostelefonnal (pl. meg
vagyok büntetve vagy olyan helyen vagyok ahol
nem szabad), nem jól érzem magam és alig
várom, hogy ismét a kezembe legyen.
If I try to cut the time I play with my
smartphone, I manage to do so for a while, but
then I end up playing with it as much or more
than before.
Ha meg szeretnék felelni szüleimnek vagy a
tanáraimnak és kevesebbet játszok az
okostelefonnal, az csak egy darabig sikerül, és
utána megint annyit vagy még többet játszom
vele mint korábban.
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9. 1 Strongly disagree
2 Disagree
3 Rather disagree than agree
4 Rather agree than disagree
5 Agree
6 Strongly Agree
Score range 6 - 36

10. The BASS was administered to 441 Hungarian
speaking schoolchildren in Transylvania (mean
age = 13.4 years, SD = 2.22, range 9 – 18 years;
229 were girls and 212 were boys).
The 26-item Smartphone Addiction Inventory
(SPAI; Lin et al., 2014)2 was also administered
to test the congruent validity of the BASS.
2Lin, Y. H., Chang, L. R., Lee, Y. H., Tseng, H. W., Kuo, T. B., & Chen, S. H.
(2014). Development and validation of the smartphone addiction inventory
(SPAI). PLoS ONE 9(6) :e98312. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0098312

11. The 6-items yielded one component;
52.38% of the total variance.

12. The internal reliability was good (Cronbach's
alpha=0.82).
Content validity was confirmed by statistically
significant differences between heavy and light
users (p <.001).
The BASS correlated positively and significantly
with the SPAI (r = 0.67, p <.001), showing
congruent validity.
Younger children (9-13 years) scored higher on the
scale than their older (14-18 years) peers (p <.001).

13. M = 16.94, SD = 6.84 M = 14.08, SD = 6.17
Cohen’s d = 0.48

14. On the average, how many hours do you
spend with your smartphone every day?

15. 1. The BASS appears to be a reliable short tool
for the screening of problematic smartphone
use in Hungarian speaking schoolchildren.
2. Younger (Primary School) children score
higher on the BASS than older (Secondary
School) children. This finding calls for an early
attention to the smartphone habits of children.
3. Secondary School girls spend nearly twice
as much with their smartphone than their male
peers. This finding warrants further attention.

16. Thank you
for your kind
attention!