Psychology & well-being
Social media addiction scale: meaning and measurement
- Concept
- Social media addiction
- Field
- Psychology & well-being
- Scales in the library
- 1
- Items
- 6
Social media addiction is excessive social media use to the point of constant preoccupation, using it to relieve mood, difficulty cutting down and harm to study or work. The BSMAS measures this concept through the six components of behavioral addiction described by Griffiths, one item per component. In Vietnam, the concept appears often in studies on students using Facebook and TikTok, linked to depression, anxiety, sleep, academic results and FoMO.
Comparing the scales
| Scale | Author (year) | Items | Response format | When to use it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Social Media Addiction (BSMAS) Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale | Andreassen et al. (2016) | 6 | 5-point | Choose for measuring social media addiction in general or on one specific platform; 6 items, 5-point frequency scale, summed score 6-30. |
Items of each scale
Original English wording from the published source. Replace placeholders such as [system] or
[brand] with what your study is about, and pilot the questionnaire with 20 to 30 respondents first.
Social Media Addiction (BSMAS) · Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale
| Code | Item |
|---|---|
| SM1 | You spend a lot of time thinking about social media or planning how to use it. |
| SM2 | You feel an urge to use social media more and more. |
| SM3 | You use social media in order to forget about personal problems. |
| SM4 | You have tried to cut down on the use of social media without success. |
| SM5 | You become restless or troubled if you are prohibited from using social media. |
| SM6 | You use social media so much that it has had a negative impact on your job/studies. |
Source: Andreassen et al. (2016). Response scale, licence and APA reference: Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale.
Tips
- The BSMAS uses a frequency scale (very rarely ... very often), not an agreement Likert; keep the anchors when merging into a shared questionnaire.
- You can replace 'social media' with a specific platform such as TikTok, but keep the item structure and state that you adapted it from the BSMAS.
- Online 'addiction' cutoffs are inconsistent across studies; if you split groups, cite the source of the cutoff and say it is a screening, not a diagnosis.
- This scale is not a diagnostic tool. Studies on mental health must follow your university's research ethics rules (with a participant consent form) and list a psychological support contact at the end of the questionnaire.
Once you have a scale, put the concept in the research model drawer to state your hypotheses, work out the minimum sample size, and after data collection check reliability with the Cronbach's alpha calculator.
Frequently asked questions
Does the BSMAS have reverse-coded items?
No. Summing the 6 items gives 6-30; a higher score means a higher risk of social media addiction.
Has any study in Vietnam used the BSMAS?
Yes. Doan et al. (2022, IJERPH 19(21), 14416) surveyed 173 young people aged 16-30 and reported a Cronbach's alpha of 0.81. This is a result on the paper's own sample, not a validation study of a Vietnamese version.
Should I use the BSMAS or the SAS-SV smartphone addiction scale?
The BSMAS asks about social media, the SAS-SV about phone use in general. Choose according to your main variable; if you measure both, check discriminant validity because the two concepts are quite close.