Nomophobia is the fear of being without one’s phone and is an increasing phobia in today’s digital society. This study examines the measurement invariance of a modified Chinese Nomophobia scale ...Show moreNomophobia is the fear of being without one’s phone and is an increasing phobia in today’s digital society. This study examines the measurement invariance of a modified Chinese Nomophobia scale (NMP-C) across gender groups using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. Gender differences in nomophobia vary significantly based on cultural context. Generally, females have been found to exhibit higher levels of nomophobia. However, understanding how gender influences the assessment of nomophobia is crucial for developing effective interventions to address its negative consequences, such as depressive states or sleep problems. The NMP-C scale was translated to Chinese in 2020, yet the measurement invariance across genders was not assessed. Ensuring measurement invariance is important to confirm that the scale measures the construct equivalently across different groups. The publicly available dataset used in this study was collected from 673 college students in China using a 16-item Nomophobia scale for Chinese. The results of the analysis revealed partial scalar measurement invariance. These findings indicate that while the nomophobia scale captures the same underlying construct for both males and females, intercepts needed to be adjusted for certain items and residual variances differed across groups. In addition, the results suggest that NMP-C should be adjusted for the Chinese population. Further implication shows a repeating pattern of gender differences in nomophobia scoring. Hence, this study highlights the importance of measurement invariance across gender testing in future nomophobia scale validations.Show less
