The Italian version of the Escapism Social Media Scale (ESMS): adaptation, validation, and psychometric evaluation

Soraci, P, Bevan, N, Pisanti, R, Servidio, R, Liberati, C and Griffiths, MD ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8880-6524, 2025. The Italian version of the Escapism Social Media Scale (ESMS): adaptation, validation, and psychometric evaluation. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. ISSN 1557-1874

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Abstract

The present study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the newly developed Escapism Social Media Scale (ESMS). Construct validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity of the ESMS were analyzed with other related constructs such as coping strategies, fear of missing out (FoMO), problematic social media use (PSMU), mental well-being (MWB), and psychological distress. A convenience sample of Italian participants (N = 406, 84.48% female) completed an online survey. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the original factor structure of ESMS, and the observed variables loaded highly on the same underlying factor. The reliability was also satisfactory, demonstrating that the Italian ESMS possesses very good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.89; McDonald’s omega = 0.90). The validity of the Italian ESMS was supported by its relationships with coping strategies, FoMO, PSMU, psychological distress, and MWB. The results of the present study enrich the understanding of escapism through social media and provide Italian clinicians and researchers with a useful instrument to assess and address problems related to escapism in social media use contexts.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction
Creators:	Soraci, P., Bevan, N., Pisanti, R., Servidio, R., Liberati, C. and Griffiths, M.D.
Publisher:	Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date:	20 January 2025
ISSN:	1557-1874
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1007/s11469-024-01438-2 DOI 2353017 Other
Rights:	© The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Laura Borcherds
Date Added:	22 Jan 2025 10:54
Last Modified:	22 Jan 2025 10:54
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/52896

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