Phubbing and phubber behavior: A new perspective in clinical psychological assessment

Background The term “Phubbing” has been defined as a behavior in which a person snubs another in a social setting by focusing on their phone instead of having a conversation. Phubbing is a common phenomenon and reduces the quality of social interactions in people, particularly those in adolescence. Objective We aimed to validate in Italian, the Generic Scale of Phubbing (GSP), and Generic Scale of Being Phubbed (GSPB), in order to measure the experiences of phubbing, and being phubbed, through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Methods We investigated whether the factor structure of GSP and GSBP may be replicated for the Italian sample, through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). For the assessment, we used the Generic Scale of Being Phubbed, the Generic Scale of Phubbing, the Internet Addiction Test, and Brief COPE. Results We found that four important factors of phubbing are nomophobia, interpersonal conflict, self-isolation, and acknowledgement of problems, and phubbing behavior is predictive of social disconnectedness. Conclusion The GSP and GSBP instruments can be useful in the clinical setting to identify specific psychological dimensions associated with phubbing, such as nomophobia and social isolation.