Nomophobia-Related Indicators inCourt-Involved Adolescents With Child-to-ParentViolence: A Preliminary Item-Level Correlational Study

Abstract

Background: Nomophobia, commonly understood asfear or distress associated with being without access to amobile phone, has become a relevant topic in adolescentresearch. However, little is known about how nomophobia-related indicators are associated with one another in adoles-cents involved in juvenile justice interventions for child-to-parent violence (CPV).Methods: This exploratory cross-sectional study in-cluded 53 adolescents serving court-ordered measures forCPV in a specialized juvenile justice centre in Madrid,Spain. Six items from the nomophobia subscale of theRisk Scale for Adolescent Addiction to Social Networksand the Internet were analyzed. Item-level bivariate cor-relations were examined, and the findings were interpretedcautiously in light of the exploratory nature of the study.Results: The six items showed positive associa-tions, with stronger correlations among indicators related toimmediate replies, read-receipt confirmation, restlessnesswhen interaction is absent, and anger when separated fromthe mobile phone. Items referring to perceived safety whensending messages or photographs showed weaker associa-tions with the remaining items. Conclusions: The findings suggest a preliminary pat-tern of internal association among six nomophobia-relatedAdolescent Social Media and Internet Addiction Risk ScaleReliability and Validity (ERA-RSI) items in this specificsample of court-involved adolescents. These results shouldnot be interpreted as evidence of the full structure of nomo-phobia or as causal evidence regarding family conflict or in-terpersonal control. Future studies should use larger multi-site samples, validated nomophobia-specific instruments,longitudinal designs, and analytic strategies appropriate forordinal data.