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Scale library · Psychology & mental health

Smartphone addiction (SAS-SV): Kwon et al. (2013)

The SAS-SV measures smartphone addiction through signs such as disruption of daily life, irritability without the phone, using it longer than intended and complaints from others. Kwon, Kim, Cho and Yang (2013) selected 10 items from the 33-item SAS based on expert ratings and validated them with Korean adolescents. It is the most widely used smartphone addiction scale in student theses, linked with sleep, stress, academic performance and FoMO.

Cite the original, not the blog.

Original English items

Items marked (R) are reverse-coded: recode them before computing reliability or scale scores. Replace bracketed placeholders such as [system] with the name of the system, brand or organization you study.

Smartphone Addiction (SAS, 10 items)

Code Item wording Reverse-coded
SA1 Missing planned work due to smartphone use No
SA2 Having a hard time concentrating in class, while doing assignments, or while working due to smartphone use No
SA3 Feeling pain in the wrists or at the back of the neck while using a smartphone No
SA4 Won't be able to stand not having a smartphone No
SA5 Feeling impatient and fretful when I am not holding my smartphone No
SA6 Having my smartphone in my mind even when I am not using it No
SA7 I will never give up using my smartphone even when my daily life is already greatly affected by it. No
SA8 Constantly checking my smartphone so as not to miss conversations between other people on Twitter or Facebook No
SA9 Using my smartphone longer than I had intended No
SA10 The people around me tell me that I use my smartphone too much. No

Response scale

6-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly disagree … 6 = Strongly agree), following the original SAS from which the SAS-SV was derived. Summing the 10 items gives 10–60; there are no reverse-coded items. Kwon et al. (2013) proposed cut-offs of 31 for boys and 33 for girls among Korean adolescents.

Licence and permission

Kwon et al. (2013) is published in PLoS ONE under a Creative Commons Attribution licence, which allows free use and reproduction with proper attribution of the authors and source. Cite the original article.

Sources (APA 7)

Vietnamese translation

A Vietnamese translation of every item, with sample-size advice and studies that used the scale, is on the Vietnamese page for this scale.

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