Internet Use Disorder: Psychological Tests

Dr-Elze.de Dr. Elze

For the evaluation of Internet Use Disorder only a few psychological tests are available. Since the development of uniform diagnostic criteria is still a subject of discussion, some of the tests available show lacks in psychometric qualities.

The Internet Addiction Test (IAT), the Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS), the Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS) and the Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire (PIUQ) are some of the most used psychological tests.

Internet Addiction Test (IAT)

The Internet Addiction Test (IAT) by Kimberly S. Young was one of the first psychological tests to asses the problem of pathological use of the Internet.

An older version of the IAT, the Diagnostic Questionnaire (DQ), consisted of 8 Items and was based on the DSM-IV criteria for pathological gambling.

The Internet Addiction Test consists of 20 items using a five-point Likert scale (cf. Young 1998, Widyanto 2004).

Since the Internet Addiction Test was in part developed as a tool for self-help and self-assessment, the quality of its psychometric properties has been criticized.

Further analysis is needed.

Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS)

The Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS) by Meerkerk et al. of the Addiction Research Institute of Rotterdam (Netherlands) is an 14-item questionnaire (cf. Meerkerk 2009).

An arabic and a french version of the Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS) have been evaluated by Khazaal et al. (cf. Khazaal 2011, Khazaal 2012).

Further analysis is needed.

Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire (PIUQ)

The Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire (PIUQ) by Demetrovics et al. of the Addiction Research Unit of the University of Budapest is an 18-item questionnaire containing three subscales (obsessions, neglect, control disorder).

In a preliminary analysis the PIUQ showed an internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) of .87 (subscales .85, .74, .76) and a test-retest correlation of .90 (cf. Demetrovics 2008, Koronczai 2011).

Further analysis is needed.

Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS)

The Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS) is (like the Internet Addiction Test) a modified version of the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for pathological gamblimg. The CIAS consists of 26-items on a four-point Likert scale, the total score ranges from 26 to 844 (cf. Ko 2005).

Further analysis is needed.

Dr. Sandra Elze & Dr. Michael Elze