The digital addiction scale for children: development and validation

Hawi, N.S., Samaha, M. and Griffiths, M.D. ORCID: 0000-0001-8880-6524, 2019. The digital addiction scale for children: development and validation. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 22 (12), pp. 771-778. ISSN 2152-2715

[img]
Preview
Text
1247997_Griffiths.pdf - Post-print

Download (210kB) | Preview

Abstract

Researchers worldwide have developed and validated several scales to assess various forms of adults' digital addiction. The urge for some of these scales found support in World Health Organization's inclusion of gaming disorder as a mental health condition in its eleventh revision of the International Classification of Diseases in June 2018. Additionally, several studies have shown that children are starting to use digital devices (DDs) (e.g., tablets and smartphones) at a very young age, including playing video games and engaging in social media. Consequently, the need for early detection of the risk of digital addiction among children is becoming more of a necessity. In the present study, the Digital Addiction Scale for Children (DASC)—a 25-item self-report instrument—was developed and validated to assess the behavior of children 9 to 12 years old in association with DD usage, including video gaming, social media, and texting. The sample comprised 822 participants (54.2 percent males), from grade 4 to grade 7. The DASC showed excellent internal consistency reliability (α = 0.936) and adequate concurrent and criterion-related validities. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis showed that the DASC fitted the data very well. The DASC paves the way to (a) help in early identification of children at risk of problematic use of DDs and/or becoming addicted to DDs and (b) stimulate further research concerning children from different cultural and contextual settings.

Item Type: Journal article
Publication Title: Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking
Creators: Hawi, N.S., Samaha, M. and Griffiths, M.D.
Publisher: Mary Ann Liebert
Date: 12 December 2019
Volume: 22
Number: 12
ISSN: 2152-2715
Identifiers:
NumberType
10.1089/cyber.2019.0132DOI
1247997Other
Divisions: Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by: Linda Sullivan
Date Added: 04 Dec 2019 14:41
Last Modified: 31 May 2021 15:13
URI: https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/38747

Actions (login required)

Edit View Edit View

Views

Views per month over past year

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year