Social Media Disorder Scale - SMD

Technical Manual

Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Created: January 02, 2021

Last Modified: January 12, 2023 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC

Background

This script implements the 9-item Social Media Disorder Scale by Van Den Eijnden et al (2016).

References

Van Den Eijnden, R.J.J.M., Lemmens, J.S., & Valkenburg, P.M. (2016). The Social Media Disorder Scale, Computers in Human Behavior, 61, 478-487.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.03.038.

Duration

0.5 minutes

Overview

The scale consists of 9 items, one for each of the following 9 problem areas:

Preoccupation: … regularly found that you can't think of anything else but the moment that you will be able to use social media again?
Tolerance: … regularly felt dissatisfied because you wanted to spend more time on social media?
Withdrawal: … often felt bad when you could not use social media?
Persistence: … tried to spend less time on social media, but failed?
Displacement: … regularly neglected other activities (e.g. hobbies, sport) because you wanted to use social media?
Problem: … regularly had arguments with others because of your social media use?
Deception: … regularly lied to your parents or friends about the amount of time you spend on social media?
Escape: … often used social media to escape from negative feelings?
Conflict: … had serious conflict with your parents, brother(s) or sister(s) because of your social media use?

( these are the 9 areas assessed to diagnose 'Internet Gaming Disorder' according to the DSM-V.
Van Den Eijnden et al (2016) argue that the same problem areas should be assessed for the related Social Media Disorder
as they can both be considered forms of 'Internet addictions'.)


Each question is answered on a yes/no scale.

Summary Data

File Name: smd_summary.iqdat' (Inquisit Lab: one data file per participant)

Data Fields

NameDescription
inquisit.version Inquisit version number
computer.platform Device platform: win | mac |ios | android
startDate Date the session was run
startTime Time the session was run
subjectId Participant ID
groupId Group number
sessionId Session number
elapsedTime Session duration in ms
completed 0 = Test was not completed
1 = Test was completed
smdTotalScore Sums up the responses to the 9 items (Range: 0-9)
A score of 5 or higher is seen as indicative of fulfilling
a formal diagnosis of Social Media Disorder (Van Den Eijnden et al (2016, p.479))
+ responses to the individual 9 items

Raw Data

File Name: smd.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
date Date the session was run
time Time the session was run
subject, group, session With the current subject/groupnumber/session id
build Inquisit version number
q*_response Response given (in assigned values)
Scale: yes (1) - no (0)
q*_latency How much time (in ms) the participant spent on the surveyPage with this particular
question (the last time this particular surveyPage was visited)

Parameters

The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.

NameDescriptionDefault
pageInstructions Instructions on each page
presentFeedback True = participants get feedback regarding their score
false = no feedback is provided
true