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Internet Addiction Test-Adolescence (IAT-A)

The Internet Addiction Test-Adolescence (IAT-A) is a 20-item instrument to measure how internet use affects adolescents and pre-teens in terms of their daily routine, social life, productivity, sleeping patterns, and feelings. The wording of this measure has been modified from the original IAT (Young, 1998) to be more relevant to a younger population.

Categories

Geographies Tested: Singapore

Populations Included: Female, Male

Age Range: Adolescents, Children

Items:

1. How often do you feel that you stay online longer than you intend?
2. How often do you neglect homework to spend more time online?
3. How often do you prefer excitement of the Internet to time spent with your best friend?
4. How often do you form new relationships with fellow online users?
5. How often do others in your life complain to you about the amount of time you spend online?
6. How often does your work suffer because of time you spend online?
7. How often do you check your e-mail before something else you need to do?
8. How often does your schoolwork suffer because of the internet?
9. How often do you become defensive or secretive when someone asks what you do online?
10. How often do you block disturbing thoughts about your life with soothing thoughts of the Internet?
11. How often do you find yourself anticipating when you go online again?
12. How often do you feel that life without the Internet would be boring, empty and joyless?
13. How often do you snap, yell, or act annoyed if someone bothers you while you are online?
14. How often do you lose sleep due to late night log-ins?
15. How often do you feel preoccupied with the Internet when offline or fantasize about being online?
16. How often do you find yourself saying "just a few more minutes" when online?
17. How often do you try to cut down the amount of time you spend online and fail?
18. How often do you try to hide how long you've been online?
19. How often do you choose to spend more time online over going out with others?
20. How often do you feel depressed, moody, or nervous when you are offline, which goes away once you are back online?

Response Options:
5-point Likert scale
Rarely - 1
Always - 5

Scoring Procedures

Item scores are summed to create a total measure score ranging from 20-100, with higher scores indicating more problematic internet use.

Original Citation

Teo, T., & Kam, C. (2014). Validity of the Internet Addiction Test for Adolescents and Older Children (IAT-A). Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 32(7), 624-637. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282914531708


Psychometric Score

Ease of Use Score

Scoring breakdown

Formative Research

Qualitative Research

Existing Literature/Theoretical Framework

Field Expert Input

Cognitive Interviews / Pilot Testing

Reliability

Internal

Test-retest

Interrater

Validity

Content

Face

Criterion (gold-standard)

Construct

KEY

Ease of Use

Readability

Scoring Clarity

Length

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