Development and Psychometric Validation of the Brain Rot Scale: Measuring Digital Content Overconsumption Among...

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Media Studies
• Digital Well-being

Background:

• Brain rot describes cognitive decline from excessive low-quality digital content, impacting youth.
• Digital natives (ages 8-24) are particularly vulnerable to these effects.
• A validated scale is needed to assess problematic digital consumption patterns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the Brain Rot Scale (BRS) for assessing digital content overconsumption.
• To establish the psychometric properties of the BRS in a youth population.
• To provide a reliable instrument for measuring brain rot indicators.

Main Methods:

• A two-phase study using exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on Egyptian samples (N=1290).
• Development of a 21-item Arabic scale, refined to a 14-item version (BRS-14) based on factor analysis.
• Assessment of scale reliability, convergent validity, and factor structure.

Main Results:

• The BRS-14 demonstrated a robust three-factor structure: Attention Dysregulation, Digital Compulsivity, and Cognitive Dependency.
• Confirmatory factor analysis indicated excellent model fit (CFI=0.988, TLI=0.985, RMSEA=0.031).
• The scale exhibited excellent reliability (ω=0.900, α=0.899) and convergent validity.

Conclusions:

• The BRS-14 is a psychometrically sound instrument for assessing problematic digital consumption.
• The scale effectively measures key dimensions of brain rot in digital natives.
• Findings support the use of the BRS-14 in research and clinical settings for youth digital well-being.