Assessing ICD-11 Gaming Disorder in Adolescent Gamers: Development and Validation of the Gaming Disorder Scale for Adolescents (GADIS-A)

Abstract

Background: Adolescents affected by Gaming Disorder (GD) show substantial impairments in daily functioning. GD was included in the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as a new diagnosis coming into effect in January 2022. An instrument to screen for GD in adolescents has not yet been published and is urgently needed for scientific research and clinical practice. Methods: In the present study, the ICD-11-based Gaming Disorder Scale for Adolescents (GADIS-A) was developed by clinical experts and scientists. It was validated with 819 frequent gamers of 10 to 17 years and a respective caregiver in an online survey. Criterion validity was examined by assessing gaming behavior, emotional dysregulation, and academic performance. Item structure was investigated by factorial analyses. ROC- and Latent Profile Analyses were computed for differentiation between GD and Non-GD. Results: In line with the ICD-11 approach and accounting for cognitive-behavioral symptoms and negative consequences equally, GADIS-A items were best described by two factors. The new instrument showed excellent internal consistency, good criterion validity, and excellent discriminatory power. Conclusions: GADIS-A is the first successfully validated questionnaire to assess ICD-11 GD in adolescents. Thus, it can significantly contribute to reliably identify affected adolescents in clinical and research settings.

ICD-11-Based Assessment of Social Media Use Disorder in Adolescents: Development and Validation of the Social Media Use Disorder Scale for Adolescents

“…With respect to age, adolescents with and without SMUD also did not differ. This is consistent with the findings e.g., by van den Eijnden et al (8,10), and Austermann et al (41) in comparable age groups.…”

“…Since the ICD-11 criteria require both specific symptoms and significant impairments arising from these symptoms to be present for a potential diagnosis, a higher specificity to detect pathological users can be assumed. As the first ICD-11 GD screening tool for adolescents, the twofactorial Gaming Disorder Scale for Adolescents (GADIS-A) was published by the authors in 2020 (41). It had revealed good to excellent internal consistency, validity, and discriminatory power.…”

Assessing Problematic Social Media Use in Adolescents by Parental Ratings: Development and Validation of the Social Media Disorder Scale for Parents (SMDS-P)

“…Thus, in contrast to the monothetic DSM-5 approach, symptoms and disability criteria need to be present. An ICD-11 criteria-based self- and parental-rating scale to assess GD was developed by the authors of this study [ 38 , 39 ]. An underlying two-factorial structure could be revealed for both scales including cognitive–behavioral symptoms and the negative consequences of the behavior.…”

“…The data were collected by an established German market and opinion research company as part of an online survey on media usage in German families. For a detailed description of the study design and the sample recruitment, please refer to Paschke et al (2020Paschke et al ( , 2021 [38,39]. A total of 23,736 German households with adults aged from 28 to 75 years were contacted by e-mail in the period from 13 to 27 September 2019.…”

Validity and Psychometric Properties of the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale in Three Large Independent Samples of Children and Adolescents

“…Interestingly, earlier work by the authors of this study provided initial evidence that to describe gaming disorder in children and adolescents according to the new ICD-11 criteria, the use of two factors is superior to the use of a single factor. Here, one factor reflects the cognitive-behavioral gaming symptoms and the other factor reflects impending or manifest consequences due to gaming behavior [45,46]. In contrast, an ICD-11 screening tool for adults covering four items found one underlying factor only [47].…”