Psychometric properties of the Italian version of the State Fear of Missing Out Inventory in a sample of Italian young adults

Despite the prevalence of social media use among Italian students, research on the state “Fear of Missing Out” (FoMO) remains limited due to the lack of reliable measures. Therefore, this study addresses the need for a reliable, culturally adapted instrument to assess this construct in the Italian context. Thus, the current study aimed to adapt the 8-item State Fear of Missing Out Inventory (SFoMOI) for use in the Italian context. Two studies were conducted to achieve this. In Study 1, an Exploratory Factor Analysis was performed on the scale items using a sample of 195 young adults (Mage = 21.5 years, SD = 3.34), who completed an online survey. The results supported one single factor solution, which was retained for further validation. In Study 2, a Confirmatory Factor Analysis was run to verify whether the results of Study 1 could be replicated with a different sample of 377 Italian young adults (Mage = 21.7 years, SD = 3.55). The participants in Study 2 completed a self-report questionnaire that included the FoMO scale, the Boredom Proneness Scale-Short Form, the Smartphone Application-Based Addiction Scale, and the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale to assess convergent validity. Age - and gender-invariance (configural, metric, and scalar) were examined. The Italian version of the SFoMOI scale was found psychometrically equivalent to the original version. It demonstrated good psychometric properties, χ2 (18, N = 377) = 49.32, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.981, TLI = 0.971, RMSEA = 0.068, 90% CI [0.049, 0.088], SRMR = 0.031, as well as discriminant (α = 0.92; ω = 0.92) and convergent validity. Ultimately, this work offered a measure which can be used as a diagnostic tool in clinical and educational settings to help detect increases in FoMO, which could make individuals more at risk for problematic online use and/or distress.