Psychiatry Investig.  2018 Apr;15(4):361-369. 10.30773/pi.2017.09.27.2.

Development and Validation Study of the Internet Overuse Screening Questionnaire

• Lee HK
• Lee HW
• Han JH
• Park S
• Ju SJ
• Choi K
• Lee JH
• Jeon HJ

• KMID: 2411387
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.30773/pi.2017.09.27.2

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
Concerns over behavioral and emotional problems caused by excessive internet usage have been developed. This study intended to develop and a standardize questionnaire that can efficiently identify at-risk internet users through their internet usage habits.
METHODS
Participants (n=158) were recruited at six I-will-centers located in Seoul, South Korea. From the initial 36 questionnaire item pool, 28 preliminary items were selected through expert evaluation and panel discussions. The construct validity, internal consistency, and concurrent validity were examined. We also conducted Receiver Operating Curve (ROC) analysis to assess diagnostic ability of the Internet Overuse Screening-Questionnaire (IOS-Q).
RESULTS
The exploratory factor analysis yielded a five factor structure. Four factors with 17 items remained after items that had unclear factor loading were removed. The Cronbach's alpha for the IOS-Q total score was 0.91, and test-retest reliability was 0.72. The correlation between Young's internet addiction scale and K-scale supported concurrent validity. ROC analysis showed that the IOS-Q has superior diagnostic ability with the Area Under the Curve of 0.87. At the cut-off point of 25.5, the sensitivity was 0.93 and specificity was 0.86.
CONCLUSION
Overall, this study supports the use of IOS-Q for internet addiction research and for screening high-risk individuals.

Keyword

Problematic internet use; Behavioral addiction; Screening; Scale validation; Cut-off

MeSH Terms

Internet*
Korea
Mass Screening*
Reproducibility of Results
ROC Curve
Sensitivity and Specificity
Seoul