Excessive Facebook use among Portuguese university students: Contributes of the adaptation of the Bergen Facebook addiction

One of the emerging topics in behavioral additions are social networks and particularly the addiction to Facebook. In recent years several instruments have been presented to evaluate these behaviors that urges for the adaptation to different contexts and populations. In this study we present the psychometric properties of the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (Andreassen et al., 2012) with Portuguese university students in two studies with samples of 442 and 196 participants to whom the instrument was applied with other measures of addition to Internet intensive use of Facebook adapted to Portuguese context. The results allow us to find good validity and internal consistency, as well as temporary stability of the instrument. They also allow us to finding gender differences in the two studies, a correlation with age and academic performance. The results are discussed based on the literature and future studies are suggested. Uno de los tópicos emergentes en adiciones comportamentales son las redes sociales y en particular la adicción a Facebook. En los últimos años encontramos varios instrumentos para evaluar estos comportamientos pero carecen de adaptación a distintos contextos y poblaciones. En este estudio presentamos las propiedades psicométricas del Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (Andreassen et al., 2012) con universitarios portugueses en dos estudios con muestras de 442 y 196 jóvenes a quien se aplicó la escala con otros instrumentos de adición a internet adaptados al contexto portugués. Los resultados indican una buena validez y consistencia interna, así como estabilidad temporal del instrumento. Observamos diferencias de género en los dos estudios, en relación con la edad y con el desempeño académico. Se discuten los resultados a partir de la literatura y se sugieren futuros estudios. Financial Support by CIEC (Research Centre on Child Studies, IE, UMinho; FCT R&D unit 317, Portugal) by the Strategic Project UID/CED/00317/2013, with financial support of National Funds through the FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) and co-financed by European Regional Development Funds (FEDER) through the COMPETE 2020 - Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program (POCI) with the reference POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007562