Abstract
Background: Excessive gaming has become a psychological health issue for both gamers and their social environments. This observation holds true for western but also non-western countries such as Iran. The aim of the present study was to translate and validate a Persian version of the Game Addiction Scale 21 (GAS 21) using a sample of adolescents and adults.Methods: A total of 412 participants (mean age: 22.16 years; 55.3% females) took part in the study. They completed questionnaires covering sociodemographic information and gaming-related information, as well as the Persian version of the GAS 21, the GAS 7, the Internet Addiction Test, and the Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale.Results: Of the initial 21 items of the Persian version of the GAS 21, five proved redundant and were eliminated. Factors analyses yielded four factors explaining 66.35% of the variance: 1. Withdrawal; 2. Feelings of guilt and addiction; 3. Mood modification; 4. Issues of time budget. Cronbach's alphas were satisfactory (alphas > 0.87). To validate the results, scores on the translated version were compared with the well-established Young Internet Addiction test. Factors correlated positively (rs between 0.21 and 0.31) with overall score on this latter test but, against expectations, positively with the generalized self-efficacy scale.Conclusions: A Persian version of the Game Addiction Scale-21 proved to be a useful tool for assessing the risk of game addiction behavior. Further, the solution with 16 items loading on four factors appears respond to the ecological need of parsimony.
Highlights
There is striking evidence that prolonged screen time is associated with negative psychological health outcomes for adolescents [1,2,3,4]
While Gambling disorder is listed as a recognized behavioral disorder in the DSM-5 (F63.0) [10]; this is not the case for Internet Gaming Disorder, which has been just tentatively identified as disorder in the DSM-5
412 individuals participated at the study; mean age was 21.66 years; on average, they were gaming for about 4.31 h per day; and the highest educational level was either the compulsory school or a high school diploma
Summary
There is striking evidence that prolonged screen time is associated with negative psychological health outcomes for adolescents [1,2,3,4]. These unfavorable associations are true for excessive and problematic smartphone use [2,3,4], and for screen time in general. Understood as a proxy for excessive and pathological screen time, has for example been linked to suicidal behavior [5], generalized adverse psychological health outcomes [6], eating disorders [7], social anxiety disorders [8], and increased substance use [9]. The aim of the present study was to translate and validate a Persian version of the Game Addiction Scale 21 (GAS 21) using a sample of adolescents and adults
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