Factor structure of internet addiction test for students in senior grades of elementary school

Abstract

One of the actual issues in the field of Internet use disorders is related to the validity and reliability of measurement instruments. The aim of this study was to examine, on non-clinical population of younger adolescents, the factor structure of the Internet Addiction Test - IAT, as one of the oldest and most widely used instruments in this field. The sample consisted of 814 Belgrade elementary school students, from fifth to eighth grade, with the average age of 12.9 years. Using exploratory factor analysis, two factors were extracted, together accounting for 46.32% of the total variance. The first factor, which accounted for 38.47% of the total variance, appeared to measure inability to control Internet use and consequences that arise as a result of excessive Internet use, while the second factor accounted for 7.85% of the variance and appeared to measure preoccupation to the Internet, responses to deprivation and replacement of real to virtual social relationships. The reliability of the whole scale, expressed by Cronbach alpha coefficient of internal consistency, was 0.91. High reliability coefficients are retained on the subscale that represent the factor, so coefficient of reliability for the first scale was 0.87, and 0.85 for the second. These findings were discussed in the context of possible modifications of the instrument and compared with the results of international research studies testing the validity and reliability of the IAT in specific national samples.

Keywords

• Internet Addiction Test
• Internet use disorder
• behavioral addictions