Development of a Cell Phone Addiction Scale for Korean Parents of Young Children

Koo, Hyun Young

Abstract

PURPOSE
This study was done to develop a cell phone addiction scale for Korean parents of young children, and to evaluate the reliability and validity of the developed scale.
METHODS
The scale was developed through construction of a conceptual framework, generation of initial items, verification of content validity, selection of secondary items, preliminary study, and extraction of final items. Participants were 465 parents and 178 children. Data were analyzed using item analysis, factor analysis, criterion related validity, internal consistency, and split-half reliability.
RESULTS
Twenty items were categorized into three factors explaining 60.3% of total variance. Factors were named as withdrawal - 4 items, loss of control - 9 items, and persistence - 7 items. Scores for the scale were significantly correlated with self-control, impulsiveness, cell phone use, and cell phone addiction of children as measured by a scale for Korean children. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the 20 items was .94, and Guttman coefficient was .87. Scale scores identified children as high risk users, at risk users, or average users by standard scores.
CONCLUSION
The results suggest that the cell phone addiction scale for Korean parents is a reliable and valid instrument to measure cell phone addiction in young children.