[Design and validation of a scale to measure nomophobia among children 9-13 years old]. / Diseño y validación de una escala para medir la nomofobia en niños de 9 a 13 años.

OBJECTIVE: To design and validate a nomophobia scale in children aged 9-13 years. DESIGN: Cross-sectional descriptive observational study. SITE: The pilot study was carried out in December 2019 with students from a school in Ávila and another in Madrid. The field study was carried out during the months of January to March 2020, collecting data from 592 students from a school in Badajoz and 3 from Ávila. PARTICIPANTS: Students of both sexes from 4th, 5th and 6th of Primary Education and from 1st and 2nd of Compulsory Secondary Education, from public and private schools. METHOD: The study has been divided in 2 phases. PHASE I: consisted of the preparation of a 40-item questionnaire with the advice of a panel of experts. This questionnaire was passed, within the pilot study, to 312 children enrolled in Primary Education or Compulsory Secondary Education. After analyzing the results, the 40-item scale was modified to improve the understanding of the schoolchildren and a field study was carried out with 592 participants. PHASE II: consisted of an exploratory factorial analysis carried out using the principal components method, which provided the distribution of the items in 7 components. After the confirmatory factorial analysis, the final 32-item scale was defined. RESULTS: This scale was shown to produce valid and reliable scores. CONCLUSIONS: The validation of this scale will be useful to identify children at risk of nomophobia, allowing educators, parents and health professionals to detect this phenomenon early in order to prevent pathological smartphone use.

Diseño y validación de una escala para medir la nomofobia en niños de 9 a 13 años / Design and validation of a scale to measure nomophobia among children 9–13 years old

Objetivo: Diseñar y validar una escala de nomofobia en escolares de 9 a 13 años. Diseño: Estudio observacional descriptivo transversal. Emplazamiento: El estudio piloto se realizó en diciembre de 2019 con alumnos de un colegio de Ávila y otro de Madrid. El estudio de campo se realizó los meses de enero-marzo de 2020, recogiendo datos de 592 alumnos de un colegio de Badajoz y 3 de Ávila. Participantes: Alumnos de ambos sexos de 4.o, 5.o y 6.o de Educación Primaria y de 1.o y 2.o de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria, de colegios públicos y concertados. Método: El estudio se hizo en 2 fases. Fase I: elaboración de un cuestionario de 40 ítems con el asesoramiento de un panel de expertos. Este cuestionario se pasó, dentro del estudio piloto, a 312 niños matriculados en Educación Primaria o Educación Secundaria Obligatoria. Tras analizar los resultados, se modificó la escala de 40 ítems para mejorar la comprensión de los escolares y se realizó un estudio de campo con 592 participantes. Fase II: consistió en un análisis factorial exploratorio realizado por el método de componentes principales que proporcionó la distribución de los ítems en 7 componentes. Tras el análisis factorial confirmatorio se definió la escala definitiva de 32 ítems. Resultados: Se demostró que esta escala produce puntuaciones válidas y confiables. Conclusiones: La validación de esta escala será útil para identificar a niños con riesgo de nomofobia, permitiendo a educadores, padres y profesionales de la salud detectarla precozmente para prevenir un uso patológico del teléfono móvil.(AU)

Objective.To design and validate a nomophobia scale in childre: aged 9–13 years. Design: Cross-sectional descriptive observational study. Site: The pilot study was carried out in December 2019 with students from a school in Ávila and another in Madrid. The field study was carried out during the months of January to March 2020, collecting data from 592 students from a school in Badajoz and 3 from Ávila. Participants: Students of both sexes from 4th, 5th and 6th of Primary Education and from 1st and 2nd of Compulsory Secondary Education, from public and private schools. Method: The study has been divided in 2 phases. Phase I: consisted of the preparation of a 40-item questionnaire with the advice of a panel of experts. This questionnaire was passed, within the pilot study, to 312 children enrolled in Primary Education or Compulsory Secondary Education. After analyzing the results, the 40-item scale was modified to improve the understanding of the schoolchildren and a field study was carried out with 592 participants. Phase II: consisted of an exploratory factorial analysis carried out using the principal components method, which provided the distribution of the items in 7 components. After the confirmatory factorial analysis, the final 32-item scale was defined. Results: This scale was shown to produce valid and reliable scores. Conclusions: The validation of this scale will be useful to identify children at risk of nomophobia, allowing educators, parents and health professionals to detect this phenomenon early in order to prevent pathological smartphone use.(AU)