[Development of Internet Addiction Scale Based on DSM-5 Diagnostic Criteria: An Evaluation in Terms of Internet...

Internet addiction (IA) turn out to be a serious health problem in our country as in the whole world, especially for young adults. To our knowledge, there are very few studies investigating IA and associated psychological variables in a Turkish sample. The purpose of this study is to develop the internet addiction scale (IAS) on the basis of the diagnostic criteria for internet gaming disorder, in the third section of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) by the American Psychiatric Association (APA).

The study included 331 university students consisting of 189 (57.1%) females and 142 (42.9%) males with a mean age of 21.6 (SD=2.61) years. Data were acquired with a Demographic Information Form, the Internet Addiction Scale (IAS), the UCLA Loneliness Scale (UCLA-LS), the Impulsive Behaviour Scale (IBS) based on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), the SelfCompassion Scale (SCS) and the Basic Psychological Needs Scale (BPNS).

Exploratory factor analysis revealed that the IAS has a 7-factor structure with an internal consistency coefficient of 0.97 in accordance with the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria.

Results of the statistical analyses showed the psychometric properties of IAS to be valid on a Turkish student sample and it significantly correlated with loneliness, self-compassion, impulsivity and basic psychological needs.