Too many swipes for today: The development of the Problematic Tinder Use Scale (PTUS)

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Tinder is a very popular smartphone-based geolocated dating application. The goal of the present study was creating a short Problematic Tinder Use Scale (PTUS). METHODS: Griffiths’ (2005) six-component model was implemented for covering all components of problematic Tinder use. Confirmatory factor analyses were carried out on a Tinder user sample (N = 430). RESULTS: Both the 12- and the 6-item versions were tested. The 6-item unidimensional structure has appropriate reliability and factor structure. No salient demography-related differences were found. Users irrespectively to their relationship status have similar scores on PTUS. DISCUSSION: Tinder users deserve the attention of scientific examination considering their large proportion among smartphone users. It is especially true considering the emerging trend of geolocated online dating applications. CONCLUSIONS: Before PTUS, no prior scale has been created to measure problematic Tinder use. The PTUS is a suitable and reliable measure to assess problematic Tinder use.