Development and validation of a novel instrument to measure pedestrians’ smartphone use: The Smombie Scale

Abstract This study aimed to develop and verify the psychometric properties of the Smombie Scale, a new instrument to measure pedestrians’ smartphone use. The instrument development process comprised two phases: instrument development and psychometric evaluation. Data were collected from September to October 2020 using the “Invite” panel aggregator. The link to the online questionnaire was sent via smartphone text message to 400 young adults aged 18–39 years and yielded 398 valid responses. We randomly selected 200 participants for the exploratory factor analysis; the remaining 198 participants were selected for confirmatory factor analysis. The Smombie Scale comprises 15 items and four factors: (a) perceived risk; (b) stationary smartphone use, always on the smartphone; (c) pending instant message; and (d) smartphone dependency. Model fit was statistically significant (χ2/df = 2.20). The analyses indicated a sufficient goodness-of-fit index of 0.93, a comparative goodness-of-fit index of 0.95, a normed fit index and Tucker–Lewis index of 0.91, and a root mean square error of approximation of 0.07. The scale was also found to have sufficient reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.83). The newly developed Smombie Scale is valid and reliable in measuring pedestrians’ smartphone use among young adults. The Smombie Scale shows evidence of being suitable for evaluating smartphone-distracted pedestrians. Its results can provide data for drafting educational programs to prevent smombie behaviors and deal with potential risks.