Psychometric properties of the internet addiction test in Chinese adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the psychometric properties of the Young's Internet Addiction Test (IAT) in 844 Hong Kong Chinese adolescents (37.7% boys) with mean age of 15.9 (standard deviation = 3.5) years.

METHODS: Demographic items, Internet use habits, IAT, and the Revised Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS-R) were administered. 3 percent of the participants were classified as addicted and 31.6% as occasional problematic Internet users. Confirmatory factor analysis results indicated that the 18-item second-order three-factor model has the best fit with our data (Satorra-Bentler scaled χ(2) = 160.56, df = 132, p < .05, normed fit index = 0.95, non-normed fit index = 0.99, comparative fit index = 0.99, root mean square error of approximation = 0.02).

RESULTS: IAT demonstrated strong internal consistency (Cronbach's α = .93). Satisfactory concurrent and convergent validity of IAT were found moderately correlated with CIAS-R (r = .46) and the average online time per day (r = .40 for weekdays; r = .37 for weekends).

CONCLUSION: IAT has evidence of being a valid and reliable scale for screening Internet addiction in Chinese adolescents.