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Nomophobia in Mexico: validation of the Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q) and cross-cultural comparison with Spain

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Abstract

Nomophobia is a situational phobia in which a person experiences fear of not being able to use the smartphone. The Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q) is the most widely used but it is not validated in the Spanish-speaking Latin American context. There are hardly any cross-cultural studies of nomophobia. The main objectives are to:1) adapt and validate the NMP-Q in a Mexican sample; 2) analyse gender, age and cross-cultural invariance; 3) examine the differences between countries. The Mexican sample consisted of 19,226 participants (63.1% girls), and the Spanish sample of 3897 (46% girls), aged between 14 and 19 years. The model of four-factors explained by a second-order factor fitted the data adequately. Satisfactory reliability indices were obtained, invariance by sex and age, and cross-cultural invariance. Higher scores were found in females, in adolescents aged 14–16 years, and in the Spaniards. The NMP-Q allows identifying problems of nomophobia in Mexicans and comparing them with Spaniards.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This study was funded by the International University of La Rioja in its Own Research Plan Grupo Ciberpsicología triennium 2017–2020 and biennium 2020–2022.

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Correspondence to Joaquín González-Cabrera.

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Ethics approval

The project was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Universidad Internacional de la Rioja (Spain) (PI: PI019_2019, 007_2020, 025_2020 and 001_2021). This study was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards established in the Declaration of Helsinki of 1964 and its subsequent modifications or comparable ethical standards.

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Through official channels, the heads of each school gave the students’ parents or legal guardians a passive consent form in which they were provided with a contact, and informed about the purpose of the study, the characteristics of the research team promoter, and their right not to participate. In this way, the parents/guardians who did not want the minor to participate returned this signed consent explicitly indicating their disagreement. 

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The authors have no competing interests to disclose.

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Appendix 1

Appendix 1

Table 6

Table 6 The Spanish version of NMP-Q for a Mexican sample

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Caba-Machado, V., Díaz-López, A., Baridon-Chauvie, D. et al. Nomophobia in Mexico: validation of the Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q) and cross-cultural comparison with Spain. Curr Psychol 43, 2091–2103 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04451-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04451-1

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