title: Measurement Invariance of the Internet Addiction Test Among Hong Kong, Japanese, and Malaysian Adolescents.
abstract: There has been increased research examining the psychometric properties on the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) in different populations. This population-based study examined the psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the IAT in adolescents from three Asian countries. In the Asian Adolescent Risk Behavior Survey (AARBS), 2,535 secondary school students (55.9% girls) aged 12-18 years from Hong Kong (n=844), Japan (n=744), and Malaysia (n=947) completed a survey in 2012-2013 school year. A nested hierarchy of hypotheses concerning the IAT cross-country invariance was tested using multigroup confirmatory factor analyses. Replicating past findings in Hong Kong adolescents, the construct of the IAT is best represented by a second-order three-factor structure in Malaysian and Japanese adolescents. Configural, metric, scalar, and partial strict factorial invariance was established across the three samples. No cross-country differences on Internet addiction were detected at the latent mean level. This study provided empirical support for the IAT as a reliable and factorially stable instrument, and valid to be used across Asian adolescent populations.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Psychology, Chinese University of Hong Kong , Hong Kong .
authors.forename: Ching-Man
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Psychology, University of Hong Kong , Hong Kong .
authors.forename: Kwok-Kei
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Mak
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Psychology, University of Hong Kong , Hong Kong .
authors.forename: Cecilia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: 3 Department of Children and Women's Health, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine , Osaka, Japan .
authors.forename: Hiroko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.affiliation: 4 Graduate Programs in Nursing Sciences, Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba , Tsukuba, Japan .
authors.forename: Shinobu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nomachi
authors.affiliation: 5 Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Selayang Hospital, Malaysia .
authors.forename: Norharlina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bahar
authors.affiliation: 6 Center for Internet Addiction, St. Bonaventure University , St. Bonaventure, New York.
authors.forename: Kimberly S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Young
authors.affiliation: 7 Department of Psychology, Asia University, Taichung, Taiwan .
authors.forename: Huei-Chen
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Ko
authors.affiliation: 8 Department of Education, Seoul National University , Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Dongil
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: 9 International Gaming Research Unit, Nottingham Trent University , Nottingham, United Kingdom .
authors.forename: Mark D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Griffiths
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007564:Japan; D008296:Malaysia; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012574:Schools