Cross-cultural Adaptation and Validation of the French Version of the Social Media Disorder Scale for Parents in a Sample of Parents of Children Aged 10 to 17 (MEDUSA-P)

Cross-cultural Adaptation and Validation of the French Version of the Social Media Disorder Scale for Parents (SMDS-P) in a Sample of Parents of Preteens and Teens Aged 10 to 17

During the first lockdown related to the COVID-19 crisis, more than 12 million students in France were affected by school closures. Previous studies have shown that when children and adolescents are not in school, they are less physically active, spend more time in front of screens, and have disrupted sleep patterns. Parents are often the first to notice problems with their children's misuse of social media, and children tend to underestimate how often and how long they use social media. Therefore, given the increase in social media use and the limitations of self-assessment scales, it seems necessary to supplement the identification of problematic social media use in children with parental hetero-assessments.

The main objective of the research is to translate, culturally adapt into French, and validate the parent version of the Social Media Disorder Scale (SMDS-P).

The secondary objectives are 1) to determine the degree and meaning of discrepancies in the scores for problematic social media use obtained by the parent-child pair, and 2) to study the socio-demographic, clinical, and environmental factors associated with problematic social media use (according to the SMDS score) among preteens and teens.

The population of interest consists of parent/children pairs aged 10 to 17. This population is recruited from consultants in the pediatrics and child psychiatry departments of the Centre Hospitalier de Versailles.

This is a cross-sectional observational epidemiological study.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Problematic Social Media Use

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 300

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• France
  • Le Chesnay, France, 78150
    • Hospital Versailles

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

• Sampling Method: Probability Sample

Study Population

Parent-child pairs with children aged 10 to 17

Description

Inclusion Criteria of Child/Adolescent Sample

• Patients aged 10 to 17 receiving child pediatric or psychiatric care at the Centre Hospitalier de Versailles
• Patient's agreement to participate in research
• Agreement of parental authority to participate

Exclusion Criteria of Child/Adolescent Sample

• Patient unable to give consent to participate in research
• Refusal of parental authority to allow child's participation in research
• Difficulty in oral/written comprehension on the part of the child

Inclusion Criteria of Parent Sample

• Parents of children aged 10 to 17 receiving child pediatric or psychiatric care at the Centre Hospitalier de Versailles
• Parent's agreement to participate in research

Exclusion Criteria of Parent Sample

• Parent unable to give consent to participate in research
• Refusal of parental authority to participate
• Difficulty in oral/written comprehension on the part of the parent

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Psychometric properties of the French parent version of the Social Media Disorder Scale	Combination of Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT) analysis	1 month for the translation and French adaptation of the SMDS-P 2 months to study the psychometric properties of the scale once data collection is complete

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Degree and direction of discrepancies in scores for problematic social media use obtained by parent-child pairs.	2 months to do the statistical analysis once data collection is complete

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Number of children with a problematic social media disorder scale use ( SMDS score higher than or equal to 6 )	The aim is to identify the number of children with a SMDS score higher or equal to 6 using the Social Media Disorder Scale and to determine the factors associated with this problematic social media use using a multivariate logistic regression model (cut-off of 6 for SMDS)	2 months to do the statistical analysis once data collection is complete

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Versailles Hospital

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 31, 2025
• Primary Completion (Actual): January 31, 2026
• Study Completion (Actual): January 31, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 2, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 12, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): March 17, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 17, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 12, 2026
• Last Verified: March 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: problematic social media use
• Other Study ID Numbers: P24/07M_MEDUSA-P

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: Data will not be shared to protect the participants' anonymity.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No