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Internet severity and activities addiction questionnaire (ISAAQ): sychometrics of item response theory and clustering of online activities

Internet severity and activities addiction questionnaire (ISAAQ): sychometrics of item response theory and clustering of online activities
Internet severity and activities addiction questionnaire (ISAAQ): sychometrics of item response theory and clustering of online activities

Background: problematic usage of the internet (PUI) is an umbrella term, referring to a variety of maladaptive online behaviors linked to functional impairment. There is ongoing need for the development of instruments capturing not only PUI severity, but also the online activity types. The Internet Severity and Activities Questionnaire (ISAAQ), previously developed to address this need, required further refinement and validation. 

Methods: cross-sectional data was gathered in two separate samples (South Africa n = 3275, USA-UK n = 943) using the Internet Severity and Activities Addiction Questionnaire (ISAAQ). Item Response Theory (IRT) was used to examine the properties of the scale (Part A of the ISAAQ) and differential item functioning against demographic parameters. The severity scale of the ISAAQ was optimized by eliminating the poorest performing items using an iterative approach and examining validity metrics. Cluster analyses was used to examine internet activities and commonalities across samples (Part B of the ISAAQ). 

Results: optimization of ISAAQ using IRT yielded a refined 10-item version (ISAAQ-10), with less differential item functioning and a robust unidimensional factor structure. The ISAAQ-10 severity score correlated strongly with established measures of internet addiction (Compulsive Internet Use Scale [Person's r = 0.86] and the Internet Addiction Test-10 [r = 0.75]). Combined with gaming activity score it correlated moderately strongly with the established Internet Gaming Disorder Test (r = 0.65). Exploratory cluster analyses in both samples identified two groups, one of “low-PUI” [98.1–98.5%], and one of “high-PUI” [1.5–1.9%]. Multiple facets of internet activity appeared elevated in the high-PUI cluster. Discussion: The ISAAQ-10 supersedes the earlier longer version of the ISAAQ, and provides a useful, psychometrically robust measure of PUI severity (Part A), and captures the extent of engagement in a wide gamut of online specific internet activities (Part B). ISAAQ-10 constitutes a valuable objective measurement tool for future studies.

confirmatory factor analysis, internet addiction, item response theory, problematic use of the internet, reliability, validity
0010-440X
Ioannidis, Konstantinos
82240a24-3153-45bb-bfaf-c6df9cd4f261
Tiego, Jeggan
43062a3a-5e7d-4b8d-8501-5af8f0d5d921
Lutz, Nina
9fbcb9d4-266a-4da1-a38b-02361584a264
Omrawo, Charlene
a1fab900-447f-46d6-8ff9-ca03aef60e42
Yücel, Murat
aff092ea-35e0-476a-b9bf-ace9b84aa1e1
Grant, Jon E.
07372bd5-8a0d-42b4-b41b-e376c652acf3
Lochner, Christine
8e428f81-855d-467b-9805-49e387f66683
Chamberlain, Samuel R.
8a0e09e6-f51f-4039-9287-88debe8d8b6f
Ioannidis, Konstantinos
82240a24-3153-45bb-bfaf-c6df9cd4f261
Tiego, Jeggan
43062a3a-5e7d-4b8d-8501-5af8f0d5d921
Lutz, Nina
9fbcb9d4-266a-4da1-a38b-02361584a264
Omrawo, Charlene
a1fab900-447f-46d6-8ff9-ca03aef60e42
Yücel, Murat
aff092ea-35e0-476a-b9bf-ace9b84aa1e1
Grant, Jon E.
07372bd5-8a0d-42b4-b41b-e376c652acf3
Lochner, Christine
8e428f81-855d-467b-9805-49e387f66683
Chamberlain, Samuel R.
8a0e09e6-f51f-4039-9287-88debe8d8b6f

Ioannidis, Konstantinos, Tiego, Jeggan, Lutz, Nina, Omrawo, Charlene, Yücel, Murat, Grant, Jon E., Lochner, Christine and Chamberlain, Samuel R. (2023) Internet severity and activities addiction questionnaire (ISAAQ): sychometrics of item response theory and clustering of online activities. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 122, [152366]. (doi:10.1016/j.comppsych.2023.152366).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Background: problematic usage of the internet (PUI) is an umbrella term, referring to a variety of maladaptive online behaviors linked to functional impairment. There is ongoing need for the development of instruments capturing not only PUI severity, but also the online activity types. The Internet Severity and Activities Questionnaire (ISAAQ), previously developed to address this need, required further refinement and validation. 

Methods: cross-sectional data was gathered in two separate samples (South Africa n = 3275, USA-UK n = 943) using the Internet Severity and Activities Addiction Questionnaire (ISAAQ). Item Response Theory (IRT) was used to examine the properties of the scale (Part A of the ISAAQ) and differential item functioning against demographic parameters. The severity scale of the ISAAQ was optimized by eliminating the poorest performing items using an iterative approach and examining validity metrics. Cluster analyses was used to examine internet activities and commonalities across samples (Part B of the ISAAQ). 

Results: optimization of ISAAQ using IRT yielded a refined 10-item version (ISAAQ-10), with less differential item functioning and a robust unidimensional factor structure. The ISAAQ-10 severity score correlated strongly with established measures of internet addiction (Compulsive Internet Use Scale [Person's r = 0.86] and the Internet Addiction Test-10 [r = 0.75]). Combined with gaming activity score it correlated moderately strongly with the established Internet Gaming Disorder Test (r = 0.65). Exploratory cluster analyses in both samples identified two groups, one of “low-PUI” [98.1–98.5%], and one of “high-PUI” [1.5–1.9%]. Multiple facets of internet activity appeared elevated in the high-PUI cluster. Discussion: The ISAAQ-10 supersedes the earlier longer version of the ISAAQ, and provides a useful, psychometrically robust measure of PUI severity (Part A), and captures the extent of engagement in a wide gamut of online specific internet activities (Part B). ISAAQ-10 constitutes a valuable objective measurement tool for future studies.

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Accepted/In Press date: 17 January 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 20 January 2023
Published date: 24 January 2023
Keywords: confirmatory factor analysis, internet addiction, item response theory, problematic use of the internet, reliability, validity

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 492734
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/492734
ISSN: 0010-440X
PURE UUID: 76f5ae53-647d-4404-be0c-7877e8ce3460
ORCID for Samuel R. Chamberlain: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-7014-8121

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Date deposited: 13 Aug 2024 16:37
Last modified: 30 Aug 2024 02:00

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Contributors

Author: Konstantinos Ioannidis
Author: Jeggan Tiego
Author: Nina Lutz
Author: Charlene Omrawo
Author: Murat Yücel
Author: Jon E. Grant
Author: Christine Lochner
Author: Samuel R. Chamberlain ORCID iD

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