A 3-item short version of the fear of missing out (FoMO) scale for trait and time-intensive designs: Measurement invariance and psychometric properties

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• Validated a brief 3-item Fear of Missing Out scale (FoMO-3). • Established strong reliability across trait, weekly, and daily assessments. • Achieved strict measurement invariance across sex and time. • FoMO-3 scores were positively associated with problematic smartphone use. Research on Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) has gained prominence alongside the rise of digital connectivity and social media, which offer individuals continuous access to others’ experiences in real time. Importantly, it has been increasingly recognised as an important psychological construct, closely associated with various problematic digital behaviours. As the fields of media psychology and human-computer interaction increasingly adopt time-intensive methodologies (e.g., daily and weekly studies) to capture dynamic experiences of technology use, there is a growing need for brief yet psychometrically-sound measures of FoMO suitable for such designs. The present work reports the development of a 3-item FoMO scale (FoMO-3) and evaluates its psychometric properties across trait and time-intensive methodologies such as daily diary studies and weekly diary studies. Across five independent samples (total N =1,258), we used structural equation modelling to evaluate the model fit and psychometric properties of trait-like and state-like versions of the FoMO-3. We found that across all assessments, the FoMO-3 consistently demonstrated high internal consistency. In Study 1, the FoMO-3 demonstrated strict measurement invariance and homogeneity of latent means and variances across sex. In Studies 2 and 3, strong time invariance was established across 13 consecutive weeks and 7 consecutive days respectively. Consistent with prior research, FoMO-3 scores were also positively associated with problematic smartphone use. These findings demonstrate that the concise, three-item FoMO-3 can capture the FoMO construct with strong reliability and validity, without compromising psychometric rigour.