Arabic validation of the Digital Mindfulness Scale among Arab university students: associations with digital life balance and problematic smartphone use

Digital mindfulness has emerged as a context-specific extension of mindfulness, reflecting intentional, attentive, and non-reactive engagement with digital technologies. Although the Digital Mindfulness Scale has been developed to assess this construct, no validated Arabic version is available for Arabic-speaking university students. This study aimed to translate, culturally adapt, and validate the Arabic version of the Digital Mindfulness Scale among university students from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Jordan. A cross-sectional psychometric validation design was used. The Arabic version was developed through translation, expert review, cultural adaptation, and content validity assessment. The final analytic sample comprised 1,252 university students from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Jordan. The scale’s factorial structure, internal consistency, internal convergent evidence, discriminant validity, criterion-related validity, and measurement invariance across countries were examined. Expert evaluation supported the linguistic and cultural adequacy of the Arabic version. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the three-factor structure of the scale, with good model fit, χ²(87) = 190, χ²/df = 2.184, CFI = 0.959, TLI = 0.951, RMSEA = 0.043, 90% CI [0.035, 0.052], and SRMR = 0.038. Internal consistency was acceptable for the three subscales, with Cronbach’s alpha values of 0.776, 0.781, and 0.760 and McDonald’s omega values of 0.778, 0.781, and 0.761 for Intention, Attention, and Attitude, respectively. Composite reliability ranged from 0.776 to 0.779. Internal convergent evidence was limited, as AVE values ranged from 0.410 to 0.414, although composite reliability values indicated acceptable construct reliability. Discriminant validity was supported by HTMT values ranging from 0.393 to 0.510. Criterion-related validity was supported by a positive association with digital life balance, r = .335, and a negative association with problematic smartphone use, r = − .283. External convergent validity was not directly examined. Configural, metric, scalar, and strict measurement invariance were supported across the four country samples. The Arabic Digital Mindfulness Scale demonstrated acceptable reliability, factorial validity, discriminant validity, criterion-related validity, and cross-country measurement invariance. Internal convergent evidence was limited because AVE values were below 0.50, and external convergent validity was not directly examined. Further validation using established measures of mindfulness or closely related constructs is warranted.