Abstract
Background: When the Internet becomes the only interest in an individual's life and everything else is emptied of importance, the isolation in which the subject closes again produces consequences not only from a psychological but also physical and social point of view. The purpose of this study was: a) to investigate the prevalence of internet gaming disorder (IGD) among Italian young adults, b) to explore the associations between the former and psychopathological symptoms, and c) to explore its consequences in social functioning. Methods: The sample included 566 young adults, 324 males and 242 females, aged between 18 and 35 years (M = 22.74; SD = 4.83). They were asked to state their favourite games choice and were administered a demographic questionnaire, the APA symptom checklist based on the diagnostic criteria of IGD in the DSM-5, the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale Short Form (IGD9-SF), the Symptom Checklist-90 Revised (SCL-90 R) and the Social Adaptation Self Evaluation Scale (SASS). Results: The different game types used are distributed as follows: MMORPG (35.7%), flash games (20.3%), multiplayer games (27%), online gambling (9.9%), other games (6.5% ). The results of the study showed high use of videogames (95% of the sample), but low incidence of Internet Gaming Disorder in young adults. Thirty subjects (20 male and 10 female) on 566 (5.3% of the sample) matched five or more criteria for clinical diagnosis of IGD. The data showed a positive correlation between use of online games (total score IGD9-SF), the higher the levels of depression (r = .501), anxiety (r = .361) and psychoticism (r = .431) and the lower the family and extra-family relationships (r = -.383). The linear regression analysis showed that somatization (p = .002), depression (p = .000) and sleep disturbances (p = .003) are predictive variables of internet gaming disorder. Conclusions: This study highlights the need to make a diagnosis of "online gaming addiction" as "independent disorder" to be included in future categorizations according to DSM-5, compared to other addictive behaviors.
Measurement invariance across young adults from Hong Kong and Taiwan among three internet-related addiction scales: Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS), Smartphone Application-Based Addiction Scale (SABAS), and Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short Form (IGDS-SF9) (Study Part A)
