French Validation of the Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS)

Abstract

The popularity of using the Internet and related applications has grown in European countries in the last two decades. Despite numerous advantages in terms of optimizing communications among individuals and social systems, the use of the Internet may be associated with excessive use and possible Internet addiction. The goals of the current study were to validate a French version of the compulsive Internet use scale (CIUS) and to assess its links with common psychiatric symptoms such as depression (assessed with the Beck depression inventory: BDI), anxiety (assessed with the trait anxiety inventory: STAI) and alcohol misuse (assessed with the alcohol use disorder identification test: AUDIT). The French versions of the CIUS, BDI, STAI and AUDIT were administered to a sample of Internet users. Exploratory and confirmatory analyses, correlation analysis and logistic regression were performed. As previously found with the original version, a one-factor model of the CIUS had good psychometric properties and fit the data well. Excessive use of the Internet was associated with depressive symptoms.