JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The Internet Gaming Disorder Scale–Short-Form (IGDS9-SF) is among the best in regards its psychometric properties. Therefore, clinical psychologists were guided to use the IGDS9-SF if they want to assess or screen problematic gaming disorder in their practice. However, the information, especially the psychometric evidence, concerning the IGDS9-SF has not been fully examined and summarized.

Objective:

This systematic review evaluated the psychometric properties of the IGDS9-SF of different language versions and examined its methodological quality in order to improve the clinicians’ understanding and facilitate the use of the IGDS9-SF.

Methods:

Systematic literature searches were carried out on Embase, Medline, PsycINFO, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Web of Science. The review included English-written studies of any research design that have reported at least one psychometric property of the IGDS9-SF as defined by the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health status Measurement INstrument (COSMIN); and have aimed at testing psychometric properties of the IGDS9-SF.

Results:

Twenty-one studies comprising 15 language versions were included. Overall, the IGDS9-SF showed adequate internal consistency (although some items did not have satisfactory item-total correlation), excellent criterion validity, and the ability to distinguish different subgroups with measurement invariance being supported across gender and age. In terms of factor structure, IGDS9-SF was shown to have a unidimensional factor structure across all 21 studies.

Conclusions:

Although, there is insufficient evidence regarding the responsiveness and properties of the IGDS9-SF utilizing Item Response Theory, the existing evidence supports its use in assessing gaming disorder among individuals.