Validation of the French Adaptation of the Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) Scale

Although the Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) scale has been widely used, its French adaptation has not been validated and its psychometric properties have not been tested. Addressing this literature gap, we propose a French validation of the measure, investigating its factorial structure and testing its invariance regarding age, sex, education, and timepoints. Using an online longitudinal study (2-waves) with a lifespan sample (N = 543, age range18 to 98 years, M = 46.8), the results showed that the French version had a different factorial structure than the original scale, identifying three subfactors that loaded to one superfactor, using 8 out of 10 original items. Measurement invariance testing revealed that the scale can be used for mean level comparisons between sexes, educational levels, and timepoints, while caution is suggested regarding age-groups. Thus, the French version of the FoMO scale is a reliable measure that can be used in French-speaking populations with various characteristics.