Francisco Javier López Fernández

Social media addiction (SMA) is associated with a wide range of psychological problems in adults, but there are fewer studies about its impact on adolescents. A first step for SMA research in adolescents is to develop instruments to properly examine SMA among them. So the first aim of the current study was to explore the psychometric properties of the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) among Spanish adolescents. The study also examined the role of personality in SMA, the associations between SMA and mental health both cross-sectionally and longitudinally, and how these associations may be affected by gender and when personality is considered. A sample of 616 adolescents participated in the study (mean age = 15.01, SD = 1.17, 309 girls), with 1-year follow-up with 222 of them. The BSMAS emerged as a psychometrically sound instrument to assess SMA in adolescents, and showed proper evidence for construct and criterion-related validity, invariance between genders and excellent internal consistency. SMA was related to extraversion, neuroticism and low agreeableness in boys, and to neuroticism, extraversion and lower conscientiousness, openness and agreeableness in girls. SMA showed cross-sectional and longitudinal associations with many psychological problems, with differential associations appearing according to gender, but most disappeared when considering personality. Accordingly, disordered gaming and defiant behaviors predicted SMA after controlling for personality. These findings show the importance of using longitudinal designs and considering personality and gender when examining SMA development and its relations with psychological problems.

Antecedentes: : La adolescencia es un periodo importante del desarrollo en el que pueden aparecer problemas psicológicos, incluyendo conducta suicida. Además, experimentar acontecimientos vitales estresantes (AVEs) puede contribuir a su aparición, aunque el impacto de distintos tipos de AVEs ha sido escasamente examinado. Este estudio pretende analizar asociaciones entre diferentes AVEs, problemas psicológicos, bienestar subjetivo y conducta suicida en adolescentes. Se desarrolló un nuevo instrumento - (SLECA)- donde los AVEs se clasificaron como: leves/graves, dependientes/independientes, interpersonales/no-interpersonales y crónicos/episódicos. Método: : Se incluyeron dos oleadas. 5.610 adolescentes participaron en la primera y 2.312 en la segunda. Resultados: : Los AVEs graves-dependientes-interpersonales-episódicos se asociaron fuertemente a problemas exteriorizados; los AVEs graves-dependientes-no-interpersonales-episódicos mostraron la más alta relación con problemas de atención e hiperactividad; y los AVEs graves-independientes-crónicos se asociaron tanto a bajo bienestar subjetivo como a problemas interiorizados. Los AVEs académicos y relacionados con problemas con los iguales se relacionaron con problemas psicológicos y bajo bienestar subjetivo. Controlando por variables de salud mental, la conducta suicida se asoció a AVEs graves-independientes-crónicos y los relacionados con la victimización y problemas con la sexualidad. Conclusiones: : El SLECA es un instrumento útil para evaluar AVEs en adolescentes, desenredando las interrelaciones entre AVEs, salud mental y conducta suicida.

Background: The Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) is a non-commercial very brief Five-Factor Model (FFM) measure widely em-ployed in research. Its use has been extended to children and adolescents, without exploring the suitability of its employ-ment for these early ages. The present study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of an adaptation of this ques-tionnaire (the Ten-Item Personality Inventory for Children and Adolescents, TIPI-CA).Participants and procedure: The sample comprised 2428 children and adolescents (Mage = 12.65, SD = 2.41, 47.16% girls). The psychometric properties of the TIPI-CA were explored in terms of factor validity (including measurement invariance across gender), as well as conver-gent and divergent validities in a subsample of 800 participants (Mage = 12.50, SD = 1.96, 49.1% girls). Furthermore, criterion validity was also tested by exploring associations with prosocial behavior and psychopathological problems in another sub-sample of 618 participants (Mage = 11.97, SD = 2.70, 53.2% girls). Finally, internal consistency and temporal stability were estimated too.Results: The TIPI-CA presented reasonably appropriate psychometric properties, although weaker discriminant validity was found among children and adolescents compared to TIPI adult versions.Conclusions: The instrument emerges as a useful tool to obtain a suitable approximation of the Big Five personality trait measures when time and/or space are scarce at early and young ages.

Few studies have examined the psychometric properties of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) in a large adolescent community sample, finding a significant disparity. This study explores the psychometric properties of the CD-RISC among Spanish adolescents by means of exploratory factor analysis (EFA), Rasch analysis, and measurement invariance (MI) across sex, as well as internal consistency and criterion validity. The sample was comprised of 463 adolescents (231 girls), aged 12 to 18 years, who completed the CD-RISC and other measures on emotional status and quality of life. The EFA suggested that the CD-RISC structure presented a unidimensional model. Consequently, shorter unidimensional CD-RISC models observed in the literature were explored. Thus, the Campbell-Sills and Stein CD–RISC–10 showed the soundest psychometric properties, providing an adequate item fit and supporting MI and non-differential item functioning across sex. Item difficulty levels were biased toward low levels of resilience. Some items showed malfunctioning in lower response categories. With regard to reliability, categorical omega was. 82. Strong associations with health-related quality of life, major depressive disorder symptoms, and emotional symptoms were observed. A weak association was found between resilience and the male sex. Campbell-Sills and Stein’s CD–RISC–10 model emerges as the best to assess resilience among Spanish adolescents, as already reported in adults. Thus, independently of the developmental stage, the core of resilience may reside in the aspects of hardiness and persistence.

Gaming motives are important factors for explaining individual differences in videogame-related behaviors. The aim of the present study was to develop a new comprehensive but brief instrument–the Videogaming Motives Questionnaire (VMQ)–which embraces some of the most relevant gaming motives. In a first study, a pilot exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with data from 140 undergraduates was performed on items from twelve potential motives. This identified eight main factors: recreation, social interaction, coping, violent reward, fantasy, cognitive development, customization, and competition. In Studies 2 and 3, an EFA and a confirmatory factor analysis were performed on two independent samples of 407 adolescents and 260 young adults, respectively. The VMQ presented a robust eight-factor structure, with all scales showing adequate reliability indices. In reference to criterion validity, all motives presented specific associations with hours spent playing videogames, disordered gaming, and game genre preferences. More specifically, and in both adolescents and young adults, social interaction was the main motive related to time spent gaming, whereas disordered gaming was related to both coping and social interaction motives. Based on these findings, it is concluded that the VMQ is a brief and psychometrically appropriate tool for assessing the most relevant videogaming motives.

Playing video games is one of the world’s most popular leisure activi- ties, especially for teenagers. The main aim of the present study was to examine additive and moderation effects of gender and personality to explain individual differences in problematic gaming and video game genre preferences in adolescence. 776 Spanish high school students (mean age = 14.29 years, SD = 1.59, 50.64% girls) completed the ques- tionnaires of the Five-Factor Model of personality, frequency of video gaming, disordered use, and the video games they mostly played.Gender differences were observed for gaming behaviors: boys played more and presented much more disordered gaming than girls. Boys preferred competitive genres; for example, action-shooters, sport, fight and strategy games. Girls preferred nonviolent and ocasional game genres; for example, social simulation, and brain and skill games. Gender moderated the association between personality and disor- dered gaming: disordered gaming was associated with low agreeable- ness and low conscientiousness in boys, and with low extraversion and low conscientiousness in girls. Low consciousnness moderated the association between gaming frequency and problematic use of video games: playing more video games led to disordered gaming, mainly in irresponsible and impulsive individuals. Though small, significant associations were found among all of the personality domains and vid- eo game genre preferences. These findings highlight the relevance of gender and personality for gaming behaviors in adolescence, and suggest paying more attention to gender-dependent differences and person-environment transactional processes when studying gam- ing-related behaviors.