# An Explorative Model to Assess Individuals' Phubbing Risk
## 4 Methods and Procedures  
The data were collected thanks to the use of Google modules that allowed us to create an online version of our questionnaire and to easily send it through email and social network sites. We decided to proceed with an online administration, rather than face-to-face, because, from literature, it has been found that, online, people are more inclined to give sensitive information (i.e., more real self-disclosure) and to give more honest answers [30]. The final questionnaire asked for data of the sociodemographic background, of the ICTs and Social Network Sites usage, and used different scales to investigate the phubbing behavior and personal characteristic. For most of the scales, we used the validated Italian version but for a few of them, like the phubbing and partner phubbing scales, not available in Italian, we proceed with a forward and back translation. The instruments that we used are:  
_The phubbing scale_[12] consists of 10 items graded from 1 (never) to 5 (always) on a 5-point Likert scale divided into two factors:  
* _Communication disturbances_ (5 items; \(\alpha=0.87\)): high scores indicate that the person often disturbs the communication using the smartphone in a face-to-face environment. Examples of this factor's items are: \"My eyes go to the phone when I'm together with others\" and \"I'm dealing with my mobile phone when I'm with my friends\". * _Phone Obsession_ (5 items; \(\alpha=0.85\)): high scores indicate that the person feels the constant need of his/her smartphone in an environment where there's a lack of a face-to-face communications. Examples of this factor's items are: \"My phone is always within my reach\" and \"When I wake up in the morning, I first check my messages on my phone\". The _Partner Phubbing Scale_[15] investigates the extension of the smartphone usage when someone is in company of his/her own partner. It consists of nine items, graded from \"Never\" (1) to \"Sometimes\" (3) to \"All of the time\" (5) with a reliability of 0.93. Examples of items are: \"My partner places his or her cell phone where they can see it when we are together\" and \"My partner keeps his or her cell phone in their hand when he or she is with me\". The _Mobile Phone Usage Addiction Scale_[12] evaluates the mobile phone usage addiction and consists of 15 items, graded from 1 (never) to 5 (always) on a 5-point Likert scale. The 15 items of this scale form three dimensions: deprivation (7 items, \(\alpha=0.86\)) (e.g., I feel anxious when I don't have my mobile phone with me), control difficulties (3 items, \(\alpha=0.78\)) (e.g., I had times when I was so busy with the mobile phone and I lost the track of time), and application (5 items, \(\alpha=0.85\)) (e.g., the applications in my mobile phone make my daily works easier). The _SMS Addiction Scale_[12] investigates the extent of the SMS addiction. This scale consisted of six items graded from 1 (never) to 5 (always) on a 5-point Likert scale. Examples of items are \"I feel a need to reply the messages instantly\" and \"I keep online the messaging applications all the time\". All of the items load in only one factor and the [PERSON]'s alpha coefficient for the SMS Addiction Scale was 0.80. The _Game Addiction Scale_[12] is used to establish the addiction to games and consists of eight items (e.g., I lose track of time when I play games; delay sleeping hours when I play a game) graded from 1 (never) to 5 (always) on a 5-point Likert scale. All the items load in only one factor and the [PERSON]'s alpha coefficient for the Game Addiction Scale was 0.90. The _Social Media Addiction Scale_[12] was developed to investigate the addiction specifically to social media. This scale consisted of 10 items graded from 1 (never) to 5 (always) on a 5-point Likert scale and it has a two-factors structure.