Turkish Adaptation of the Social Media Sadfishing Questionnaire in High School Students and Its Psychosocial Correlates

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Ceyhun Z., Ceyhun H. A.

Advances in Clinical Medicine and Evidence-based Science, cilt.1, sa.1, ss.14-22, 2026 (Hakemli Dergi)

Özet

Objective: With the increasing use of social media, adolescents are more likely to share their emotions and personal experiences in online environments. Sadfishing—defined as posting exaggerated or misleading negative content to attract attention and sympathy—has recently attracted scholarly interest. However, empirical evidence on its prevalence and psychosocial correlates among Turkish high school students remains limited. This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the Social Media Sadfishing Questionnaire, determine the prevalence of sadfishing among high school students in Erzurum, and explore its associations with social media addiction and psychosocial difficulties. Methods: The Social Media Sadfishing Questionnaire was translated into Turkish using forward–backward translation and expert review. Linguistic equivalence was tested in a bilingual sample. The final version was administered online to 106 high school students together with the Social Media Addiction Scale for Adolescents and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to examine the factorial structure. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach’s α, McDonald’s ω, composite reliability (CR), and average variance extracted (AVE). Criterion-related validity was assessed via correlations with social media addiction and psychosocial variables. Results: Overall sadfishing levels were low. CFA supported a unidimensional structure with excellent model fit (CFI=.998, TLI=.995, RMSEA=.061), and factor loadings were high (λ=.93–.97). The scale showed very high internal consistency (α and ω > .97), strong CR (≈ .98), and high AVE (≈ .91). Sadfishing was positively correlated with social media addiction (r=.27, P<.01). Social media addiction was moderately associated with emotional problems, internalizing and externalizing difficulties, and hyperactivity. No gender differences were observed in sadfishing, whereas girls reported higher social media addiction scores. Conclusion: The Turkish version of the Social Media Sadfishing Questionnaire demonstrated strong psychometric properties. Although sadfishing levels were generally low, its associations with social media addiction and psychosocial difficulties suggest links with emotional vulnerability and online coping. These findings underscore the importance of emotional skills, supportive relationships, and digital literacy in fostering healthier online behaviors among adolescents.