Exploratory Factor Analysis of Young’s Internet Addiction Test Among Professionals from India: An Online Survey

Abstract

Background: Internet use has spread across the world due to easy accessibility and affordability. However, it has been creating many problems at several levels. So, there is a need to identify the suitability of psychometric properties and the factor structure of the widely used Internet Addiction Test (IAT) in the Indian settings. Our objective was to perform an exploratory factor analysis on the IAT and to test the reliability of the scale. Methods: It was a cross-sectional study that included various professional groups. We used an online questionnaire that included sociodemographic details and Young’s IAT. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify the factor structure of Young’s IAT in the Indian setup. Results: The mean age of the sample (N = 1,782) was 27.7 years (SD = 8.74) with a predominantly male population 1040 (58.4%). In total, 1.0% (17) of the sample had significant problems with internet usage, whereas 13% (232) were in the range of frequent/occasional problems, and the mean score on IAT was 32 (SD = 16.42). Exploratory factor analysis revealed two factors that explained 49% of the variance (Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure of sampling adequacy: 0.95, Bartlett’s test of sphericity: P = 0.000). They were “mood and relationship issues” and “duration and productivity.” Cronbach’s α was 0.92, which indicates a high level of internal consistency. Conclusion: In Indian settings, IAT can be understood based on the two-factor structure. The scale has excellent reliability. Further studies are needed to replicate these results, by using confirmatory factor analysis and validity testing.

Psychological Problem in Geriatric Age Group

“…Also, avoid moving from one topic to another throughout the chat, since this may cause them to become confused. The emergency department would also increase the care take of older people by implementation of these ideas and would all together be able to provide a better healthcare facility for older people as a whole federation [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16].…”

Profiling young internet addicts: implications for their social well-being

“…In a study conducted on young students in an Indian metro, Kumar and Mondal (2018) found that those with high incidences of internet use demonstrated psychopathological symptoms and a lowered sense of well-being. Further, studies reported that as the individual gets more and more entangled in their uncontrollable desire to engage with the internet, there develops an element of social loneliness (Suresh and Biswas,2019), the aftermath of which is lowered productivity and interpersonal dysfunction (Spoorthy et al , 2020). Demetrovics et al (2008) identified three problem areas associated with internet addiction, namely, a standard definition of the construct and its subsequent measurement, and most importantly, based on these, the identification of diagnostic symptoms that could help identify the level or the extent of the problem.…”

“…Longstreet et al (2019) also asserted that those who lacked emotional stability and a defence mechanism to cope with challenges were more prone to higher levels of addiction. Several researchers studied the roles played by personality and emotions in internet addiction (Spoorthy et al , 2020); however, they obtained mixed results. Alt and Boniel-Nissim (2018) identified that those who were more gregarious and extroverted were more inclined to problematic internet use.…”

“…Lastly, research has also reported that the addiction has dire consequences not only for the individual but also for society at large. This may range from loss of productivity (Spoorthy et al , 2020) to an irreplaceable and significant impact on a person’s sense of well-being. For this purpose, as well, the study wanted to investigate the state of subjective well-being among internet addicts.…”

“…Further, researchers have demonstrated that as internet addicts are not a homogenous group (Whang et al , 2003), one must carefully examine those who appear to be vulnerable to this addiction. Though research is being done on the construct in the Indian context as well, the studies have most often looked at either validating the existence of internet addiction (Spoorthy et al , 2020) or examining the probable consequences of internet addiction (Suresh and Biswas,2019). Thus, there is a clear gap, both in terms of establishing the possibility of varied groups among internet addicts, and the impact of the addiction on the individual’s sense of well-being.…”