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BMC Public Health
Published in: BMC Public Health 1/2015

Open Access 01-12-2015 | Research article

Validation and psychometric analysis of the Internet Addiction Test in Spanish among college students

Authors: Tania Fernández-Villa, Antonio J. Molina, Miguel García-Martín, Javier Llorca, Miguel Delgado-Rodríguez, Vicente Martín

Published in: BMC Public Health | Issue 1/2015

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Abstract

Background

The wide use of the Internet in the workplace, academic or social field, can have an impact on daily life. One of the most used questionnaires worldwide to analyse these problems is the Internet Addiction Test (IAT). Our aim was to validate a Spanish version of the IAT and analyse its psychometric properties.

Methods

Population of study were college students participating in the uniHcos project (Universities of Granada, Huelva, Jaén, León, Salamanca, and Vigo). The questionnaire was translated and back-translated by two native English speakers. Reliability of scores was analysed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient and agreement was analysed using the Bland-Altman and Kappa techniques. Test dimensions were analysed by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis.

Results

The reliability of scores was good (r = 0.899, Kappa = 0.650 and mean difference using Bland-Altman = −3.5). The psychometric assessment identified two factors (Emotional Investment; Performance and Time Management) which explained 55 % of the variance (total internal consistency of 0.91) and only 19 items. The confirmatory analysis showed an acceptable goodness of fit, especially when items 6 and 8 were related (RMSEA = 0.07 90%IC = 0.06 - 0.08; WRMR = 1.01, CFI = 0.96; TLI = 0.95). The two dimensions were negatively correlated with age and positively correlated with time spent online, especially for the purposes of leisure and entertainment.

Discussion

The results show good reliability and psychometric properties of the Spanish version of IAT with a two-dimensional solution. This result is partially in concordance with previous validations of the IAT in other languages that have found uni- and multi-dimensional solutions using different methodologies. Moreover, we want to highlight the possibility that some item of this questionnaire is outdated due to the technological and lifestyles changes and should be not taken into account.

Conclusion

The reliability and psychometric properties obtained in this study support the conclusion that this Spanish short version of the IAT represents a useful tool for the analysis of problems arising from misuse of the Internet.
Appendix
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Metadata
Title
Validation and psychometric analysis of the Internet Addiction Test in Spanish among college students
Authors
Tania Fernández-Villa
Antonio J. Molina
Miguel García-Martín
Javier Llorca
Miguel Delgado-Rodríguez
Vicente Martín
Publication date
01-12-2015
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Public Health / Issue 1/2015
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2458
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-2281-5

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