Objective: The objective of this study was to adapt the “Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS)” developed by Adreassen et al (1) into Turkish, and to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the Bergen Facebook Addiction among university students.
Method: The study was conducted in 2015 at Uskudar University and Yeditepe University (Istanbul-Turkey) with a total of 300 students from different majors and age groups. The draft scale was finalized after being translated and corrected by experts in the relevant fields. To determine the validity of the scale; factor analysis was performed and the results revealed that, of the 6 items reflecting the six core elements. It was detected that all items were distinctive with respect to relationship of each item with its related factor. Reliability level was determined by test – retest and internal consistency analysis. In addition, to test the criterion dependence validity of the scale, the correlation between the data gathered from Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale was analyzed respectively with data collected from the Smartphone Addiction Scale, Facebook Use Variance and Facebook Addiction Self-evaluation.
Results: The internal consistency coefficient was calculated using the Cronbach’s Alpha formula and gave a result of crα= .89. The 3-week test-retest validity Cronbach’s alpha was .76 for the six-item Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale. The factor analysis and testretest results confirmed the reliability and validity of the 6-item scale.
Conclusion: Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale is able to measure reliably, and the scale is a valid and reliable tool to be employed in a clinical environment to predict addiction levels of individuals regarding Facebook use in the Turkish society as well.