iSCALE: Unveiling the Digital Addiction Quotient - A Comprehensive 6-Item Measure for Internet Compulsion

Abstract

Scale and sought to adapt it to a brief 6-item form (CIUS-6) based on Griffiths’ component model of addiction. The study sampled 273 university students with mean age 34.6 (SD = 12.5) of which 68% were female. Assessment of the proposed CIUS-6 confirmed unidimensionality, acceptable reliability and validity at the item and construct levels. Additionally, three latent classes of compulsive internet use, namely ‘high risk’, ‘medium risk’ and ‘low risk’ were identified. A higher risk of compulsive internet use was associated with younger females with low self-control. Further, compulsive internet use is positively correlated with risky online behaviour. The optimal cutpoint of the CIUS-6 was determined to be 12 which gave a prevalence of 19.5% for compulsive internet use. In addition, the criteria of relapse/loss of control and mood modification showed the highest discriminative powers. The study concluded that the CIUS-6 is a psychometrically valid scale and that compulsive internet use is associated with psychological problems and potentially negative outcomes such as risky online behaviour. Further, the 14-item CIUS can be reduced to a format that is based on Griffith’s six criteria of addiction, to allow easier comparison to studies examining various forms of social media addiction.