Development and Validation Study of the Internet Overuse Screening Questionnaire

Abstract

ObjectiveConcerns 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.MethodsParticipants (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).ResultsThe 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.ConclusionOverall, this study supports the use of IOS-Q for internet addiction research and for screening high-risk individuals.

Development and Validation of a Short-Form Internet Overuse Screening Questionnaire for Adults

“…The content of the items in the IOS-Qs could be a starting point for the early detection of, and intervention for, problematic internet overusers. Results suggest that the neglect of other areas, including social life (e.g., item number 21,22,24) and misuse and dependence (e.g., item number 6, 7), are critical symptoms to guide intervention for problematic internet over-users compared to the awareness of self-control (e.g., item number 15, "I don't think I can reduce my internet usage without help from others") or internet using behavior (e.g., item number 3, "I stay up all night using internet"). Among the items, misuse and tolerance for the internet were common phenomena for addiction (e.g., alcohol addiction, nicotine addiction); however, the social problem (i.e., item number 21, 22, 24) is a relatively unique characteristic for problematic internet overuse.…”

“…Expert Ratings about Adequacy and Importance of the Items Eight experts in the fields of psychiatry, psychology, and clinical pathology rated the adequacy and importance of each items via a 5-point Likert scale (1 = not at all, 5 = to a large extent). Since the original items of the IOS-Q were developed based on the ratings of adequacy and importance [44], all the items of the IOS-Q showed > 3 (neutral) in the 5-point Likert scale except for the importance of items 9 and 11. Thus, these 2 items were not included in the IOS-Qs.…”

“…To screen for general internet over-users, > 20 questionnaires have been developed; however, most have limitations (e.g., improper cut-offs, irrelevant items, lack of diagnostic criteria) [20]. Importantly, Lee et al [22] noted that: (i) the Internet Addiction Test may not be suitable for those under a certain age (i.e., "youth") and does not support diagnosis, (ii) the Chinese Internet Addiction Scale [21] is not thoroughly validated, and (iii) the Korean Scale for Internet Addiction includes ambiguous items.…”

“…To overcome these limitations, Lee et al [22] developed the internet overuse screening-questionnaire (IOS-Q) to screen for at-risk internet over-users (Lee et al. [22]). It is worth noting that the IOS-Q was developed and validated to screen for Korean internet over-users.…”

Development and validation of a Smartphone Impact Scale among healthcare professionals

“…As the literature was not sufficiently rich to provide a comprehensive conceptual framework of the proposed study, the investigators adopted expert FGD and a biopsychosocial model to develop the preliminary test items. 36 , 37 This generated a wide range of items included on the SIS based via a thorough literature review and FGD. This is similar to the process of development of the SOCS, 11 in which Ding and his team conducted two sessions of FGD to identify the items of the scale.…”