Validity and reliability assessment of the Brazilian version of the game addiction scale (GAS).
BACKGROUND
The uncontrolled use of video games can be addictive. The Game Addiction Scale (GAS) is an instrument that was developed to assess this type of addiction. The GAS consists of 21 items that are divided into the following seven factors: salience, tolerance, mood modification, relapse, withdrawal, conflict and problems. This study assessed the convergent validity and reliability of the GAS according to measures of internal consistency and test-retest stability.


METHODS
Three hundred and eighty four students completed the GAS, the Internet Addiction Test (IAT), the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Video Game Addiction Test (VAT). A subgroup of the participants (n=76) completed the GAS again after 30days to determine test-retest stability.


RESULTS
The GAS demonstrated excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha=0.92), was highly correlated with the VAT (r=0.883) and was moderately correlated with the BDI (r=0.358), the LSAS (r=0.326) and the IAT (r=0.454).


CONCLUSIONS
In the Brazilian Portuguese population, the GAS shows good internal consistency. These data indicate that the GAS can be used to assess video game addiction due to its demonstrated psychometric validity.
Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil. Electronic address: igorlemos87@hotmail.com.
Igor Lins
IL
Lemos
Institute of Psychiatry, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Electronic address: adrianacardosorj@yahoo.com.br.
Adriana
A
Cardoso
Affective Disorders Unit, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil. Electronic address: evertonbs@yahoo.com.
Everton Botelho
EB
Sougey
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D001938:Brazil; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards; D018910:Video Games / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult